The Rise of Islam

Question 1

Tell about Jewish uprisings in the first and second century.

Answer 1

you may go back and remember in the year ad70 there was a major uprising in palestine against the roman authority and it was a jewish-led uprising the romans crushed it in a.d 135 there was a second jewish revolt the romans crushed that one as well and since the romans had to deal with the jewish uprising twice when they dealt with the second one they really spared nobody they were merciless in their crushing them and jewish people began leaving palestine fleeing in every conceivable direction just trying to save their lives and some of them went to arabia

Question 2

What was the Quraysh tribe?

Answer 2

jewish people began leaving palestine fleeing in every conceivable direction just trying to save their lives and some of them went to arabia and when they went there they contacted the arabs who were there and in particular one tribe of arabs named the Quraysh tribe. The Quraysh tribe was the most powerful one in arabia it was in arabia they were the chief commercial and religious powers and they had their center in the city of mecca mecca which was going to become duly famous when muhammad appeared on the scene prior to that it was just a pagan trading post and all the pagan worship that was typical of those people took place in mecca the tribal conflicts were very common from time to time often worsened by what were called blood feuds the arabs had a philosophy that worked this way if you hurt one of my people i’ll hurt two of yours i’m simplifying it of course but it’s the idea revenge driven by revenge and we call it a blood feud there are a lot of tribal conflicts among the various tribes in arabia a lot of blood was shed a lot of blood feuds and there is no central government of any kind arabia was not a nation it was a geographic expression and this did not seem to be any basis for political unity until a new religion appeared

Question 3

What was the Kaaba?

Answer 3

It was a temple of pagan worship and the quraysh tribe worshiped there and the principal deities of the quraysh tribe were three virgins three virgins who were extolled as divinities worthy of worship and one of the gods in addition to those three virgins was allah allah was just one more god often called a high god in that he had a prominence above the others but he was certainly not the dictatorial god that you might imagine.

Question 4

What is the Muslim Black Stone?

Answer 4

There’s an old muslim tradition said the angel Gabriel brought a black stone from heaven well i don’t think gabriel had anything to do with it but there is a black stone from heaven well from the heavens black cells the meteorite and that meteorite is in this in the kaaba temple it was there at pagan times and it has remained there under muslim control according to the old tradition abraham and esau brought the black stone to the Kaaba in fact they were the architects of the Kaaba and the arab arabs believes that when god expelled adam and eve from the garden of eden adam landed on the island of ceylon now where is that has a different name today sri lanka south of india and very much an indian type culture so adam landed on ceylon and he went then looking for eve and he took it took him 100 years to find her and he found her at mecca that’s the story found her at mecca

Question 5

Talk about the Jews in Muhammad’s day and before.

Answer 5

the jewish presence in arabia is more than interesting the koran appears to be the oldest exton piece of arabic literature so it is the primary source for the study of arabia in muhammad’s era this the quran shows that there was a substantial jewish presence in mecca but even more so in the city of Yatrib Yatrib would become known as medina after muhammad got control of it but the old word was yatrib y-a-t-r-i-b and the jews had a thriving commerce there and they exerted considerable political control because of their numbers and because of their wealth jews had been in arabia since the 4th century and by in Yathrib by muhammad’s day they may have accounted for 50% of the city’s population so the large number of jews and the jews were very advanced above the arabs and they exploited the arabs when they had the opportunity and that led to resentment and it may explain why as muslims the arabs would be more harsh toward jews than they were toward christians the jews dispersed by roman intervention in palestine caused them to flee to several countries as i indicated and jews established themselves along the caravan trades in arabia and yatrib seemed to be the site of their political structure whatever one they had and it was a place of their commercial combine as well a number of arabs were very impressed with the advancements the jews were making and they became jews so arabs converted to judaism and this had the effect of laying a monotheistic foundation on which islam could build with jews the absolute the absolute and necessary belief is the oneness of God if you were to attend a synagogue service any place in the world today you would hear this statement declared recited by the congregation hear o israel the lord is our god lord our god is one so the absolute oneness of god strict monotheism was the arch belief of the jews and the muslims who became jews then encouraged the development of judaism even further so there is now that monotheism which could compete effectively with the pagans when muhammad appeared in yatrib very few jews accepted his claims he was terribly disappointed he thought since he has become a monotheist they are the same and they have this cardinal principle in common which they did but that was not enough to make the arabs very receptive toward muhammad

Question 6

The southern part of Arabia is now known as the kingdom of ________. It was a….

Answer 6

site of an early christian development in arabia probably has influences filtering over from ethiopia on the red sea this religion was modified but modif was monotheistic of course but and it claimed to be christian but it held to heretical views about the person and work of Christ then there was persian influence which brought further christian type beliefs but they too were tarnished with Arian christology

Question 7

By the fourth century, numerous _________ had been established in Arabia and a _______ was functioning well and the Christians themselves were satisfied that….. The largest Christian group in Arabia committed the serious error of believing….

Answer 7

monasteries
bishopric

they could remain in arabia and perhaps win converts that proved to be a disappointed aspiration

in fact the largest christian group in arabia committed the serious error of believing the trinity was composed of the father the son and the mother virgin mary that is not the biblical trinity by any means father son and virgin mary that enjoyed quite a bit of popularity among those so-called christians there were a few christian a few tribes that claimed to be christian in in their totality at one time paintings of jesus and mary were hanging in the Kaaba in the temple

Question 8

The Arab subscription to a heretical view of Christ led the imperial government and Constantinople to…

Answer 8

persecute arab christians the consequent resentment among those arabs made them very receptive to muhammad and his message and when islam provided an alternative to christianity many arabs regarded muhammad as a liberator and they turned to his teaching in opposition to any version of christianity

Question 9

Talk about Muhammad’s family situation.

Answer 9

well let’s take a look now at the life of this man we know him now as the prophet muhammad he came from the quraysh family born in mecca but born into one of the minor branches of that family and so he didn’t have any particular social standing or any rank of importance he had a sad family situation in fact his his father died before he was born before muhammad was born and his mother died six years after his grandfather and later an uncle raised reared him but they did not convert to islam his uncle enabled him to gain employment as a caravan driver conducting camel caravans back and forth between and among the cities he worked for a lady who happened to be a widow her name was khadijah k a d i j h a k k h a d i j a that she was his employer and she was very wealthy because her caravan business was thriving somehow romance blossomed between the two of them and they married even though she was 15 years older than muhammad they seemed to have a very happy union they had six children but only one of them survived the death of her father her name was fatima and some of the people in islam even to this day refer to themselves as fatimites or fatimites

Question 10

Why do some people in Islam today refer to themselves as Fatimites?

Answer 10

they had six children but only one of them survived the death of her father her name was fatima and some of the people in islam even to this day refer to themselves as fatimites or fatimites

Question 11

About the year 610, Muhammad began a religious practice of…

Answer 11

retreating to a remote place for prayer and meditation

Question 12

Muhammad claimed that while he was meditating…

Answer 12

he had a visit from the angel gabriel at first he feared that gabriel was actually a demon and he was so frightened that he considered committing suicide khadijah however consoled him she introduced him to her cousin who was a professing christian and that cousin told muhammad that the visitor from the other world was actually gabriel the angel and that the revelation was genuine so his christianity was a little thin i believe khadijah was the first one to convert to the teachings of muhammad and an adopted son followed her and her father too became a disciple his name was abu bakr abu bakr a abu r abu bakr he was a merchant he accepted muhammad’s claim to be a prophet to be a prophet of allah

Question 13

Allah had been worshipped as a high deity for a long time before Muhammad. Muhammad declared…
Who were most of his converts and why?

Answer 13

allah is the only god this is going to be a rigorous monotheistic movement in general though the people of mecca when they heard the teaching of it turned away from it with contempt after all he came from the lower class of people in mecca so why listen to him most of his converse came from his own lower class in general americans rejected islam and they clung to their traditional pagan beliefs and practices

Question 14

Some opponents feared this new religion because

Answer 14

this new religion they feared that it would ruin the economy of mecca because if people rejected the traditional pagan gods that could hurt the economy very badly because the pilgrim trade pilgrims came from far and wide to worship at the kaaba and so there was a dreaded future fear that islam would take home and ruin the pilgrim trade and the economy might collapse and so there are a number of efforts now to kill muhammad his critics formed conspiracies and they plotted to take his life after the death of khadija muhammad decided to leave mecca because it is no longer safe to remain there

Question 15

Muhammad decided to leave Mecca after the death of Khadija because it was no longer safe to remain there. Meanwhile, leaders in ______ invited Muhammad to…

Answer 15

meanwhile leaders in yatrib invited muhammad to become an arbitrator in the disputes to which which it were disrupting their community evidently muhammad impressed people with his sincerity and his reputation for honesty and so for that reason the yakuza people turned to him for advice and counsel he sent some of his followers to yatra to prepare the way for himself and soon he and his father-in-law abu bakr moved there in 622.

Question 16

What is the jira agira?

Answer 16

It is a holy day remembering when Muhammad and his father-in-law moved to Yatrib.
it was a principle holy day in the practice of islam even now so a new day had dawned and the muslims went so far as to establish a new calendar the day of the date of the agira 622 became the year one in the muslim calendar since the jews and christians in yatrip were monotheists muhammad expected that they would join with him on that basis and muhammad was greatly disappointed when that did not happen oh there were some converts but not nearly as many as he expected

Question 17

Soon Muhammad and his followers changed the name of Yatrib to ______ which means

Answer 17

to medina and medina means city of the prophet city of the prophet so muhammad expected a favorable reception

Question 18

Muhammad expected a favorable reception in Yatrib/Medina, but…

Answer 18

jewish rejection led him to take severe reprisals against the jews once his power base was secured in medina he showed the jews no mercy

Question 19

Talk about the treatment of Jews pre-Islam in Arabia as well as in early Muslim days.

Answer 19

mercy in pre-islamic times jews ruled some areas of arabia but the last of those states was conquered by the by the byzantine empire coming from constantinople even before muhammad appeared on the scene attacks upon the jews were often and they were vehement they refused to acknowledge muhammad as a prophet and the jewish arab woman insulted him and muslims for the muslim forces fresh from battle against their opponents besieged the jewish fortification but as you surrendered the muslims killed most of them and those jews who were not killed were banished and deprived of their homes and possessions

Question 20

Muhammad very quickly gathered a substantial following in Medina and particularly he was a favorite among the _____

Answer 20

most wildlied radical tribesmen these bedouins as they’re called readily seem to move gravitate toward islam and they brought their love of violence with them they were at war most of the time and the blood feud was a social custom among the arab bedouins

Question 21

The prophet regarded the stronghold of Mecca as a stronghold of _____ and therefore….

Answer 21

idolatry
mecca should be destroyed the jews were not idolaters but they opposed islam and they too had to be crushed after defeating them in medina the prophet ordered the execution of jewish males women and children were spared but sold into slavery because muhammad made no distinction between religion and civil authority he was actually the autocratic ruler of the muslims

Question 22

One reason the Jews of Medina scorned him was…

Answer 22

was muhammad’s declaration that jesus christ is a true prophet and you find 25 references in the quran to jesus all of them very positive but jesus too appears there as a muslim prophet when each time his armies won a victory that enhanced the prophet’s claim to be the messenger of islam so it seemed that he was not making idle claims because he said divine forces were fighting on his side

Question 23

What does the word jihad mean? What is a jihad?

Answer 23

it’s a harmless word in and of itself all it means literally is to exert oneself exert oneself that’s all nothing necessarily ugly or threatening about that but with the passage of time jihad acquired another significance in the early muslim period it did not call for holy war against unbelievers but after muhammad settled in medina shihan came to signify a violent struggle islam against the enemies and the enemies were people who refused to accept the religion this sometimes justified self-defense but eventually it meant the use of force forced conversions to destroy the remaining idolaters and and not only the idolatrous but the jews and christians as well muslims were to command the right and forbid the wrong that’s right out of the koran itself and jihad then became the war against the infidels the infidels were the unbelievers people who had not embraced islam loyal muslims then were just must strive to establish muslim sovereignty and thereby to propagate the faith to unbelievers current muslim leaders vary in their belief about conducted jihad there are some today who say that they have no warlike intentions at all but they want islam to spread and so they want to spread it by peaceful means not all of them say that there are some that are avowedly radical and more like there are passages in the quran which may be cited to support a militant view of jihad and the pacific view so one or the other the koran appears to be contradicting contradicting in that regard muhammad had a personal score to settle with the people of mecca who had scored him and driven him out and so therefore muhammad marshaled the bedouin forces and sent them to war against mecca

Question 24

What is razzia?

Answer 24

the term for war is razia r-a-z-z-i-a-ratzy yeah and it means holy war it came to mean holy war give you an example in 624 a very large caravan came from mecca and while it was traveling a much smaller force of muslims attacked it and won the victory over it plundering its possessions took a lot of prisoners killing a large number of enemy warriors muslims beheaded the leader of the caravan and they presented his head to muhammad these were not nice guys and muhammad claimed that the battle of victories in battle validated his right to be condoned as a prophet when it came to dividing the spoil from the meccan caravan muhammad took one fifth of the proceeds for allah and himself how much allah i forgot i don’t know but mohammed got something this year although the muslim victories were impressive

Question 25

Muhammad did not believe his forces were strong enough to conquer Mecca so...

Answer 25

he resorted to diplomacy he agreed to a 10-year truce with mecca but two years into the truce he changed his mind and launched an all-out assault and in short order his forces were triumphant in mecca and he was on on the way to becoming the dictator he did a remarkable thing he had a reputation now of being brutal brutal to captives especially but when he took possession of mecca his hometown he executed only four people 24 people they were the outspoken enemies of muhammad so he did not engage in a bloodbath but he did engage in some interesting religious reforms anybody who feared that the kaaba was going to collapse or be destroyed was mistaken he occupied the kaaba with the black stone and he declared that the Kaaba had now become a muslim temple he removed all the idols that were there and he dispatched soldiers to destroy other pagan shrines in other places in one case his soldiers can confronted a tribe that absolutely would not acknowledge the claims of muhammad so warfare blew out on the had

Question 26

Muhammad had several women - all of them after khadijah died - he was faithful to her, but after she died he took many others and he claimed that... It was 10 years since the hegera when he returned to Medina where he became seriously ill, he retired to the home of...

Answer 26

a divine revelation gave him the license to have as many wives as he wanted one of his wife's aisha a-y-i-s-h-a-hisham she was the daughter of abu bakr she was his favorite wife and he died in 632 she lived till 678 and she exerted considerable influence in the development of the religion aisha became known as the mother of believers and she claimed to receive revelations and the term for revelations is hadith h-a-d-i-t-h-hadit these are oral traditions put into writing to preserve the prophet's teaching and later the collection of khadi is near the great mosque in medina

Question 27

What is hadith?

Answer 27

Ayisha, Muhammad's wife who lived on after him, became known as the mother of believers and she claimed to receive revelations and the term for revelations is hadith h-a-d-i-t-h-hadit these are oral traditions put into writing to preserve the prophet's teaching and later the collection of khadi is near the great mosque in medina now

Question 28

Talk about the formation of the Koran and what it contains.

Answer 28

of the koran now is the authority for islamic teaching muslims believe in mechanical dictation that is that allah dictated every word that appears in the quran and the angel gabriel brought the directions down to muhammad the collection of these so-called revelations most of them were were collected after the death of muhammad although some while he still lived the definitive edition of the koran appeared after he died and abu bakr his father-in-law was the one who did most of the work there were disputes about some of the documents taken into the quran the quran is a very unsystematic book but it's not even chronological in nature and so it's much more difficult to understand than is the bible and abu bakr and his associates argue among themselves about which documents to include a document is called a surah s-u-r-a and that has in effect become a chapter heading in the quran thesaurus

Question 29

There are two major schools of Islamic thinking and practice....

Answer 29

one is the sunnah which is by far the largest group and the other is the shia that's high a and one of the things that separates them is their different understanding of which surahs belong in the quran the shias have two more soras than the sunnis the sunnis are by far the majority probably 80 percent of the world's muslims are sunnis the largest shia version belongs to iran that has a number of mystical features to it as well

Question 30

The Quran contains not only religious statements about religious duty, but...

Answer 30

parts of it are to be frequently recited in public and in private prayer the quran contains laws comments about public events statements of policy and rebukes for people who reject the prophet's teaching the quran mentions god and his apostle and the apostle is muhammad and sometimes the attributes of god are awarded to the apostle and here is something quite interesting to note in all the koran there are only two references to the love of god only two many many to the justice and power of god but only two to the love of god although much material in the quran comes from the bible there are generous remarks about jews and christians within the quran too sometimes the jews and christians are cited as people of the book and the book involved is the bible they are people of the bible and that's to their credit but they need to understand that christians and jews have tampered with the bible and it's necessary to revise the bible and republish it in its true form and that is how the koran developed the koran is different from the bible but it's very similar to the bible in many ways like the bible there are chapter and verse numbers in the quran the quran as i said refers to jews and christians as people of the book but then in another surah it denounces them as pagans and they say that the the term mushrik belongs to christians and jews

Question 31

What is mushrik?

Answer 31

m-u-s-h-r-i-k mushrik bushrig means polytheists mainly get brought against christians because of their doctrine of the trinity please excuse me here's one admonition that leaks off the page those who have been given the bible but believe not in allah and follow not the religion of truth until they paid the tribute readily being brought low now break bringing them low is of course enslaving them and in server 9 verse 30 there's an accusation that christians are perverse people who deny allah and the surah declares and i'll quote it allah fight against them fights against them allah told the prophet to give jews and christians here it is tidings of a painful doom

Question 32

In the early years of the movement, Muhammad told his followers to bear insults in opposition patiently, but...

Answer 32

once he gave sufficient power he urged them to take the sword and defend themselves and their beliefs against infidels

Question 33

All the major teachings of Muhammad appear in the Quran, but then there are the...

Answer 33

oral traditions as well i mentioned them in past in the hadith are oral traditions which were put into writing collected and saved and many of the hadith are written by people who have the honor of being known as companions of the prophet companions of the prophet are trustworthy and authentic transmitters of the of the prophet's teaching

Question 34

Although monotheism is the fundamental tenet of Islam, early in his dealings with Gabriel, Muhammad himself reveled...

Answer 34

a belief in three exalted virgins that was an old pagan idea but he can't do it for a while and the angel gabriel came down from heaven to rebuke the prophet and he dismissed those figures the three virgins as just a mere expressions without reality when he did that some meccans restored it in anger but thereafter islam denied there were any mediators at all between allah and his human followers the quran lists several old testament prophets by name among them are elijah elisha job and jonah but in its event in places but the koran places elijah with zachariah and john the baptist even though they were several centuries apart in time king david too appears as a prophet to whom allah gave the book of psalms although the quran portrays muhammad as the greatest prophet but nothing more than that a tradition holds that he acts as an intercessor who will appear on the day of judgment to plead for all muslims

Question 35

Muhammad is assumed to be qualified as an intercessor because...

Answer 35

he is without sin now that's not official teaching but some of the divisions and subdivisions of islam do hold to the sinlessness of the prophet but in the quran there is a call for muhammad himself to repent like all other mortals

Question 36

The Jewish elements in Islam are interesting. According to Islamic beliefs...

Answer 36

muhammad is the greatest and last of the inspired prophets he stands at the end of a succession beginning with adam and extending through the old testament into the new testament where zacharias john the baptist and jesus are cited as muslim prophets the muslims find predictions of muhammad's advent in the bible they contend that such predictions were obscured by jews and christians who corrupted the biblical text the quran contains ambivalent and even contradictory declarations about the jews some ambivalence continues has continued into modern times today in palestine especially which is always it seems in turmoil between jews and arabs and the the palestinians there for take a very hard and uncompromising view against christians and jews muhammad claimed that abraham and ishmael his son built the kaaba that at first mohammed designated jerusalem as the major holy city for islam but after it became evident that he could not establish his firm control in jerusalem he changed his position and said mecca is to be the principal holy city followed by medina and then jerusalem number three in the quran there are prescriptions for abstinence from unclean foods like judaism muhammad forbade the use of all visual images of a religious nature and that's why some muslims and even some jews avoid being photographed they think that that would be a sinful thing to do allow oneself to be photographed muslims regard the site of a temple in jerusalem as what they call the naval of the universe the naval of the universe and according to this legend this is where abraham attempted to sacrifice ishmael not isaac but ishmael that's the site from which the prophet ascended to heaven for a visit he did that more than once and momentary visions in which he ascended into heaven moses like abraham is a prominent prophet in the quran and there's a stinging critique of the hebrews moses came to you with clear proofs of allah's sovereignty yet while he was away you chose the calf for worship and you were wrong doers that's surah 2 9 21. muhammad was directed to tell the muslims we follow the religion of abraham the upright and he was not of the idolaters muslims accuse jews of polytheism because jews sometimes refer to ezra as a son of god that's his surah 9 30.

Question 37

Talk about the Christian elements in Islam.

Answer 37

jesus is the most prominent figure in the quran there are 25 references to him as i mentioned it hails him as the messiah it affirms that he worked miracles when he was on earth and that his return will occur at the end of time muhammad seems to have learned about christianity when he visited syria on one of his camel caravans he may have met christians who were visiting in mecca as well his wife khadijah had christian relatives and she became a monotheist before muhammad did in 628 some christians from southern arabia appeared in medina to discuss religion with muhammad statements of the prophet concerning christianity like those pertaining to judaism appear quite inconsistent he called the the jews and christians both of them people of the book his reference to christians vary from tolerance to hostility depending on the christians attitude toward muhammad and his claims the quran purports to be a transcript of a heavenly tablet a tablet that relates all that has happened and all that will happen it contains statements of the prophet while he was in a state of ecstasy there is no chronological sequence and some of the later passages in the quran contradict earlier ones allah is an arbitrary sovereign entitled to change his mind at any time so the immutability of allah is not a feature of islam it is a feature of judaism and christianity but not of islam the quran portrays god in very favorable terms as the compassionate and merciful one the compassionate and merciful one is allah but stern is very stern toward unbelievers here's another statement from this one from surah 112. one god is one the eternal god begetting not and unbegotten none is his equal god is not anybody's father god does not have any children and it's an outrageous lie to claim he does some contend that surah 9 5 here it is slay the polytheists wherever you find them some claim it just canceled earlier verses which call for toleration others say this applies only to enemies who try to destroy islam so muslims themselves are divided about such matters according to the quran adam's offense was very serious but he did repent and regain god's favor there is no doctrine of transmitted original sin nothing like christianity adam's sin sinful nature no there's none of that in islam when other people sin they may obtain forgiveness by obeying god's commands and adhering to god's revelation in the quran islam does not have a developed concept of a redeemer one hadith explains asura to mean that god opened the heart of muhammad and removed a black speck and that's why muhammad relied upon because the black speck was taken out of his heart this is not a belief common to all muslims by any means the koran is not a revelation of god's being but more it is a declaration of god's will muslims maintain that no one can know god personally this contrasts with christian christian belief in a personal god who has revealed himself for human benefit the muslims claim to know god's will without knowing god their definition emphasizes that what god is not rather than what god is god is not a human god is not a redeemer god is not a father when the muslims speak about god's love which is rarely they mean allah rewards obedience with his love but god made it maintains no universal love for his creatures his lone futures are rather elaborate eschatology somewhat comparable to christianity this includes a final judgment a resurrection from the dead an eternal heaven and eternal hell the quran describes the afterlife in material terms of comfort splendor or or else in hell suffering and despair heaven is for the faithful muslims who will enjoy cool shade exotic food and the tireless service of scantily clad beautiful maidens that's the concept of heaven you always see the influence of geography upon that cool shade lots of cool water arabia doesn't offer that at all all right the quran says very little about life after death as far as details are concerned it does say that angels escort souls of the faithful to heaven but ah gives fuller description this uh features peaceful separation of the soul from the body followed by a brief time in the presence of god to receive a test a taste of eternity when that has occurred the angels returned their souls to the bodies to await the resurrection and judgment unbelievers experience painful separation of souls from their bodies angel of death conducts unbelievers to the vicinity of heaven but does not allow them to enter they can get a glimpse of it because this is what's going they're going to miss but they are not entitled to enter it of course next angels escort the souls of their to their bodies and they await the resurrection and eternal damnation so it's similar to christianity in some ways as you can see residence in the grave is not a state of unconsciousness angels continue to visit to death today either to console them who are faithful or to distress those who are unbelievers but while in the grave the dead have glimpses of heaven or hell the time spent in the grave is a foretaste of eternity this corresponds roughly to the roman catholic concept of purgatory rather similar wisdoms are not uniform in their belief shia shia or shiites reject this teaching while the majority of muslims affirm it the details of post-mortem experience do not receive much attention from ordinary muslims one feature of eschatology which does receive great attention among muslims is their belief in the end times while muslims maintain the exact time of the last hour is known only to god they have organized the events pertaining to the end in a systematic sequence hence they cite signs of times which will hurl the end of the world this is taken from sora 82 just a paragraph we'll read when the heaven is cleft asunder when the plants are dispersed when the seas are poured forth when the sepulchers are overturned a soul will know what it has been know what it has been said before before it and what is left behind without the quranic support a tradition is declared universal a tradition declared universal disintegration of natural the actual order to be preceded by vast moral decadence you know it seems to me here again some correspondence with christian teaching where christians look for a great tribulation time of uh great corruption and and a great amount of suffering muhammad divided time into three great eras first the time of moses when he received the torah so that was the first great portion of time moses divided when moses received the torah secondly when jesus brought the gospel moses received the torah jesus brought the gospel and then number three allah revealed the quran so instead of doing this we do ancient medieval and modern history it's a religious point of view entirely the torah the gospel and the koran muhammad is the last of the prophets so history is now in its final phase how long it will last but nobody knows but it's in its final phase i think that too could be related to christian thinking i rather believe that don't you that we're in the last days don't know how many last days there are could be trillions i don't know but i think that the period between the ascension of jesus into heaven and his personal return and glory at his the last days and the apostles in the new testament were aware of living in the last days so it's a similarity there muslim eschatology predicts though that the muslim movement itself will fragment due to apostasy this is the main reason why the sects of muslims hate one another and attack one another viciously allah will eventually send a savior who is called the body m-a-d-h-i the marty will go to jerusalem and reign there with justice until the antichrist appears from iraq and persecutes true muslims thereby reducing the true muslims to a remnant at the point of desperation jesus will return and lead the faithful to victory by killing the antichrist jesus will then reign until the end of time that seems to be a millennial position according to islam jesus did not die on the cross and muhammad rather than jesus is the ideal man true religion requires people to imitate the prophet rather than imitating christ islam stresses muhammad's visit to heaven when he was escorted by gabriel and while he was there he's got a glimpse of hell as well and he described hell very much the way dante would later describe his inferno here's a remark in surah 17. muhammad went from the sacred mosque to the farther mosque which could be heaven well in heaven the prophet met abraham moses and other prophets this experience is called his night journey because gabriel awoke muhammad while he was sleeping and escorted him to jerusalem and then from the tip of the temple the pole at the top of the temple from there he ascended to heaven for a brief stay and then would return to earth islamic eschatology features the claim that muhammad will lead people at the end to the day of judgment and there will be a bridge a very narrow bridge and it would be so narrow it could be like this the blade of a sword and it passes over hell and it's and infidels who walk on that bridge fall off of it into hell and they're spent there's they're dispatched to eternal suffering in hell the wicked endures scorching wind black smoke and the only thing to drink is boiling water angels keep humans under surveillance and they make mighty reports of making nightly reports about their behavior they that appreciate to allah the idolaters including christians are called pagans that aren't formally applied only to vegans but now the christians too hell awaits all of them christians are polytheists judgment day will feature a scale on which good knee deeds will be balanced against evil ones and so islam then features salvation by works the muslims picture of hell is a place of torment through which all humans must pass muslims will not remain there not very long but they will soon gain paradise others will remain there forever one level of hell is reserved for christians muslim most muslim scholars hold that the quranic references to the holy spirit really mean gabriel the angel and as i think i said correct a correct conclusion now we come to the role of jesus in korah in islam he is known as jesus or isu bin miriam jesus son of mary he is never but never son of god son of mary the koran affirms the miracles of jesus including his own miraculous birth according to surah 19 shortly after his birth under a palm tree jesus declared i am a servant of allah he has given me the book and has made me a prophet he has made me blessed whenever i will be blessed wherever i may be and he has enjoined me to prayer and i can't read my own answer all right the worship of allah this is another quranic statement worship allah my lord and your lord i am a witness says quran says muhammad speaking muslim traditions cite jesus as the seal of the israelite prophets because he was the last prophet allah sent to the hebrews he was a precursor to muhammad one who predicted the coming of the greatest prophet who of course is muhammad all though his conception in mary's womb was miraculous jesus is a human creature jesus came to preach monotheism and submissiveness to islam to allah some references in the quran attribute to jesus miracles which do not appear in the new testament one and for example one tale has it that jesus once formed a bird out of clay and gave it breath and enabled it to fly another miracle tale says jesus spoke from his cradle to protect mary from accusations about her morality among the miracles recorded in the new testament the koran includes the resurrection of lazarus like saltwise the resurrection of the son of name and the daughter of gyrus one bizarre report says that jesus when challenged by his critics raised shem who had been dead for centuries what good shepherd is going to do i don't know and the muslim belief jesus is not the redeemer he did not die on the cross but divine by divine action jesus was elevated to heaven well who do you think appeared on the cross would you believe simon of cyrene who has different he carried the cross for jesus but he was not crucified but according to the quran simon of cyrene was crucified by mistake jesus remains in heaven and will be there until the day time for the second advent his death and resurrection will occur his his power of death and resurrection will occur when he leads the struggle against all the forces of antichrist and he prevails over them all dr mcgovern yes so why is it that they see muhammad as kind of the ultimate the highest prophet and yet they see jesus as the one who's going to reign and bring resurrection and all these things i can't answer that question dogmatically but muhammad himself was a really dynamic personality he could be and was indeed often very persuasive and people looked up often people who were downtrodden and poor looked to him for help and they sometimes got it jesus was a remote figure jesus had been gone for hundreds of years and the bible is not a reliable account of the divine revelation because christians and jews have tampered with it so i think his dynamic leadership ability was really impressive that people listen to him because he made promises and he got results so it's easy to establish the credibility of such a person in those terms i think that's what happened so did muhammad himself uh kind of exalt himself as the highest prophet or did he make their doctrines this is a divine designation that the angel gabriel informed him that he was the greatest and the last of the prophets and so he was fulfilling a divine commission that help you you still look like you're not sure i mean it's just weird to me that they exalt muhammad so highly and yet don't attribute the second coming and all that stuff to muhammad instead of jesus if jesus was just kind of one of the nice prophets but jesus was exalted to heaven muhammad died of normal death that's right yeah but see they they would probably say that the death of jesus as it appears to scribe in the bible is not accurate he was not crucifix crucified he didn't really die but instead gabriel escorted him to heaven so he didn't die at all muhammad did that's for sure so i can't answer you any better than that i think but that's my supposition it does seem curious to me that a lot of the miracles the things sound more like gnostic miracles like miracles like miracles that uh are recorded in gnostic gospels i mean yeah that's right the gospel gospels are full of tales they're story books in your opinion

Question 38

Talk about the staying power of Islam.

Answer 38

what gives it staying power versus other cults that have come and gone so well for a long time islam was in decay after mukama died and the initial movement began to run out of energy and zeal and some muslims adjusted to be living a very comfortable life and they became less conspicuously lacking in zeal they were the arabs the arabs were the first muslims but it wasn't long before islam spread to non-arab areas such as iran or north africa morocco asia and so forth and wherever the expansion occurred it pumped new energy into it so while as long as it appears to be lapsing it looked like it would just take its place as another religion without much to speak for itself but when the muslims expanded into say egypt for example there in egypt they encountered a christian church which was terribly decadent one of the so-called eastern orthodox churches connecting with constantinople but christianity was in a decadent condition there and the people who lived there now looked upon islam as a liberator the muslims had come in and driven out their the oppressors and as a consequence that gave credibility to the islamic religion then you go across north africa by the 8th century muslims crossed into spain once again they encountered a decadent form of christianity and they began the military conquest of most of spain not all of it but three quarters of it anyhow and for a long time they would be in control of spain although they fought among themselves that weakened their their ability to control and after a while islam began to recede and the last muslim whole stronghold was in granada in the extreme southern part of spain and when they when they left there they went back to north africa and in north africa they had comrades but it's a i don't know this is any any way of explaining it more graphically tonight and today islam is enjoying a great resurgence and particularly because of the issue about palestine the muslims are furious with the israelis for their occupation of palestine they said palestine belongs to them and whenever they take action against the israelis israelis of course launched reprisals and the israelis are so well equipped and so well trained that the local palestinians are not really any match for them but there are other muslim countries which could be providing major military assistance to the palestinians but divisions among them keep them apart if the arabs of the muslims of the world all could get together they could launch a horrendous blow against the state of israel but they're always divided among themselves i think this is the hand of god as they work there do you think there's anything to the idea of the description that god gives of ishmael that he will be over against his brothers yeah that has sort of characterized that um descendancy you might say yeah i'm sure that's possible

Question 39

According to Islamic claims, Jesus was not crucified, He did not die, He did not rise from the dead and so there's not much gospel left. Give 5 assertions of Muslims regarding these points.

Answer 39

1. one influential muslim commentator said “allah cast the likeness of Judas of jesus upon him who had betrayed him so that the person who was crucified was judas a fitting punishment for betraying jesus 2. the quran asserts that jesus brought the gospel but it does not explain the contents of the gospel 3. muslim scholars in denying the crucifixion and resurrection often resort to citing scholars who are of a rationalistic mind-bend and who therefore use their learning against christianity 4. some argue that the new testament records are not reliable and they contend that the new testament narratives are in a corrupted condition and who's the one principally to blame the apostle paul paul is responsible for misrepresenting the teachings of jesus by connecting his death with the forgiveness of sins some muslim apologists cited european scholars who denied the resurrection because they denied all things miraculous 5. muslims argue that the best non-muslim scholars in the world support the koran's view that christ is not the son of god he did not was not crucified he is not anybody's savior and therefore he is altogether different than that christians portray him

Question 40

Looking at the Muslim concept of salvation, what three things do Muslims believe/teach?

Answer 40

1. muslims deny the doctrine of original sin and this really negates any working view of redemption 2. in muslim belief humans are inherently good although they are subject to the limitations of their nature they have weaknesses but they are not by nature in a state of rebellion against god 3. islam teaches that violations of god's law occur because human beings are forgetful and negligent but not because their nature is depraved

Question 41

Muslims recite memorized pasages of the Quran to...

Answer 41

...remind them of their duties to Islam and to Allah in particular

Question 42

When the Muslims sin, they may obtain forgiveness though...

Answer 42

repentance, but there is no redeeming sacrifice required for human beings to obtain forgiveness

Question 43

Muslim use the term conversion, but they actually mean

Answer 43

restoration. There is no regeneration since the human beings are not dead in trespasses and sins as the Scripture says they are so there's no need for regeneration in Muslim thinking.

Question 44

The means of salvation are...

Answer 44

belief and good works Belief in Allah as the one and only god Good works pleasing to Allah are good deads of righteousness. And forgiveness is promised to those who seek to be rightneous. IF they are faithful Muslims they will receive a great reward. the believers according to the the balance of scale will indicate the good deeds are sufficient and if they are sufficient then that person will get eternal life

Question 45

The concept of faith in Islam requires belief in what three things

Answer 45

1. the oneness of god 2. the prophetic teachings of Muhammad himself 3. life after death

Question 46

Such muslim belief entails the performance of duties specified as the...

Answer 46

...five pillars of Islam. So if you now the five pillars you have a summary of Islamic belief at your fingertips anytime you want it. In fact they are elaborate manuals of instruction that Muslim leaders use to educate their people in the doctrines of Islam.

Question 47

What does the koran declare about martyrs?

Answer 47

martyrs always earn salvation and they can claim the assurance of salvation ordinary muslims cannot

Question 48

What does the koran say about suice and terrorism?

Answer 48

islam regards suicide as an unforgivable sin and it prescribes a death penalty for people engaging in terrorist activities now this is interesting consider the condition today we are not at all surprised when muslim terrorists launch an attack any place they they like and they're likely to do it again and again but the quran itself at least in one place specifies that the death penalty should be imposed upon anybody engaging in terrorist activities

Question 49

What is indispensable for all believers in Islam?

Answer 49

proper worship

Question 50

What does the Koran say about Jews and Christians as far as salvation is concerned?

Answer 50

the koran is therefore inconsistent in describing the position of jews and christians as far as the prospects for salvation are concerned one sora number two to be exact promises christians and jews if they believe in god and in the coming of the last day and do what is right then there is a possibility that they will be saved even though they are not islam islamists or muslims but those who say god is christ or christ is god for them there is a harsh eternal damnation muhammad said this any jew or christian who heard about me and did not believe in me and what was revealed to me of the holy quran and any traditions his ultimate destination is the hell of fire so as faithful intelligent learned christians who willfully reject the teachings of islam will suffer eternal damnation

Question 51

What are the five pillars of Islam?

Answer 51

1. Shahadah - bear witness daily that there is no god but allah and muhammad is his prophet 2. Prayer 5 times a day facing the Kaaba in Mecca 3. Zakat - requirement to give alms to the mosque (1/40th) 4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan 5. The Haj - or pilgramage to visit Mecca and participate there at the Kaaba during the holy season

Question 52

What is the first pillar of Islam?

Answer 52

now the first of the five pillars of Islam is known as the shahadah - it means literally to bear witness as repeated publicly in the services of islam because it declares the oneness of god to be the bedrock for the religion and every muslim is is required to recite the pillars of islam every day and in this case it would be to assert the oneness of god allah is the one and only god

Question 53

11 points on the second pillar of Islam - prayer

Answer 53

the second pillar is prayer and this this is prayer of a ritualistic nature a very tightly described usage of the term prayers written in advance and recited in public and a) when they pray they have the duty to pray facing mecca facing the kaaba to be exact and b) to do that five times a day so no matter where they happen to be when the hour for prayer arises they should drop everything else and go to their knees in prayer and c) there's an official whose duty it is to call the people to prayer so in muslim countries you'll see towers called minarets and the mutsan are the heralds who stand in the tower and they call the people below to the prayer five times a day prayers are prescribed d) friday is the holy day rather than saturday or sunday it's friday and public prayer is always part of a formal worship service men and women convened separately for prayer if e) if they have one mosque there'll be a division in the mosque so that on one side are women on the other side are men and f) before people engage in worship they must perform a ceremony in which they wash their hands their face and their feet hands face and feet g) there's a popular muslim belief that prayer cancels lesser sins and h) prayers recited in the kaaba itself expediate even major transgressions i) all muslims must participate in daily prayers at specified hours and all must attend services at the mosque on fridays now once they are finished their services on friday then they treat the rest of friday as an ordinary day so it's not an entire holy day many muslims perform this duty mechanically of course but don't miss the point there are some muslims who are completely earnest devoutly pious they really believe this teaching and they performed their duties with zeal muslim j) prayers are not heavily weighted toward personal needs but rather weighted towards declaring the praise of allah and asking for favors for the movement as a whole k) worship services in mosques are quite different from churches of the christian persuasion very different indeed for example a muslim gathering for worship is a very somber experience it does not include any form of music it is a sharp contrast then with christianity christians love to sing and they often sing beautifully but muslims do not think music is an appropriate part of worship

Question 54

What is the third pillar of Islam?

Answer 54

the third of the pillars is called zakat in arabic z-a-k-a-t zakat this is the requirement to give alms to the mosque to make financial contributions now you've heard probably heard of people who complained when somebody to church that says it's time to re give our tithes well that's nothing compared to what the muslims do they have no problem with that at all because giving of alms amounts to 1 40th of a person's income not one-tenth but one-fortieth of his income and then there are other offerings which people may make voluntarily but the 1/40th is a requirement

Question 55

What is the fourth pillar of Islam?

Answer 55

the fourth of the pillars is fasting fasting during the month of ramadan ramadan is the ninth month in the muslim calendar and everyone is required to fast during the daylight hours in ramadan once the sun goes down they may eat and drink as usual but fasting is prescribed for the earlier part of the day fasting is believed to remove sins committed during the previous year

Question 56

What is the fifth pillar of Islam?

Answer 56

and then finally the fifth and last of the pillars of islam is the haj we usually spell this h-a-j h-a-j the translate that as pilgrimage one of the solemn duties of every faithful muslim is to visit mecca and participate there at the kaaba during the holy season and if a person cannot do so because he can't afford to go then he will be excused but if he can't afford to go he must go to mecca and each year during the holy season over two million people from all over the world arrive in mecca and participate in the hajj while they're in mecca they listen to sermons they pray and they perform animal sacrifices which is quite interesting they perform the sacrifice of animals and in so doing they are commemorating abrahams who slaughtered a ram as a substitute for his son ishmael not isaac but ishmael the hajj occurs during the final month in the lunar calendar sacrifices then are rather i i find it rather bizarre that they resort to their sacrifices since they don't believe that jesus made a sacrifice and they don't think there's any redemption connected with this blood sacrifice but they perform them just the same

Question 57

In addition to the five pillars of Islam, there are the laws of Islam and these are known as _____.

Answer 57

Sharia laws

Question 58

How did Sharia come into being?

Answer 58

soon after muhammad died disputes arose about issues that could not be settled by a simple appeal to the koran many issues pertain to matters of conduct and ethical implications of the faith sharia came into being as scholars who were expert in the quran and the sunnah issued pronouncements which then caused reactions that led to a proliferation of sects so that disputes among muslims have led to sectarian divisions i told you about the two major divisions but a lot of smaller divisions as well i suspect that in some circumstances muslims are every bit as contentious as presbyterians you think so presbyterians can be contentious it's not always to our credit

Question 59

The scholars of sharia law are known as the ______

Answer 59

ulema

Question 60

The ____ is roughly comparable to the Jewish Torah.

Answer 60

they use the term sharia about the same way that art that jews use the term torah and so that is roughly the equivalent of torah now since muhammad had not established any central authority for the religion disputes were inevitable and like the jewish rabbis the ulema quarreled among themselves and thereby contributed to divisions among the muslims

Question 61

a large minority sect in Islam is known as the shia. Shiites.....

Answer 61

developed an authority structure of their own in which they placed the leadership responsibility in people called muftis muftis and the muftis acquired the status of legal experts and so their pronouncements were held in high regard

Question 62

Why do such a wide spectrum of issues need to be settled in Islam?

Answer 62

since islam recognizes no separation of civil and religious authority a wide spectrum of issues needed to be settled and efforts to adjust traditional law to accommodate conditions in a changing world provoked a lot of reaction from orthodox muslims who regarded

Question 63

Give 2 examples of Saudi Arabia being extremely strict in applying the penalties of sharia.

Answer 63

saudi arabia is a country with which is up until very recently been extremely strict in applying the penalties of sharia there's been some relaxation lately but for until about two or three years ago women in arabia were not allowed to drive automobiles they finally got that permission just quite recently the saudis once executed a religious leader and broke diplomatic relations with iran because that leader disagreed with their interpretation of sharia

Question 64

The nonislamic world is known as the... _______

Answer 64

abode of war as the whole world has been given to muhammad it needs to be purged in the world of islam and its authority must be supreme so it's clear that muslims - that most of them at least - have a very militant attitude against other religions and they cherish the idea that one day the whole human race will be subject to islam and allah

Question 65

How did one leading Muslim scholar in the 20th century describe his own religion?

Answer 65

one leading scholar in the 20th century described his own religion in these ways words a revolutionary ideology a revolutionary program to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals i'll read that again this is his his conception of the muslim religion it's a revolutionary ideology a revolutionary program to alter the social order and the whole world and to rebuild it in conformity with its own tenants and ideals the tennis and ideals of islam we've already encountered the term jihad well jihad he's he says the same the commentator said this is that revolutionary struggle and utmost exertion to achieve this is our objective islam is a comprehensive system which envisages to enforce its own program of reform wherever it seems best for the well-being of mankind so faithful orthodox muslims then are committed to changing the culture of the entire world and refashioning it in the shape of islam

Question 66

Unlike Christianity, in Islam there is no distinction between law and gospel. They are one and the same and that includes the civil law part of the religious documentation so doctrinal and legal issues are matters of _______. What two principles result?

Answer 66

divine revelation There is no secular society No diversity of religion is tolerable

Question 67

How did the ulema sometiems reconcile contradictions in the koran?

Answer 67

the ulima the leaders now the scholars sometimes declared that later parts of the koran abrogated earlier ones so that there are no real contradictions there just later abrogations

Question 68

What has about the same relevance for Muslims as the Talmud has for Jews?

Answer 68

most muslims laws now don't come directly from the quran they come from the khadit which is gathered together collected as the sunnah and the compiled interpretations of the sunnah have about the same relevance to muslims as the talmud has for jews you may know the talmud is that massive set of books in print it runs to 50 or 60 volumes and various schools of rabbinical thought have argued and contended with one another over the centuries and put their findings into in the in the talmud most muslim laws though it's come from the sunnah and and other non-quranic sources

Question 69

What is interesting perhaps by omission in Islam?

Answer 69

what's interesting by omission perhaps is that in islam there's no recognized priesthood there are no no redeeming sacrifices that one i mentioned about abraham that's just the memorial that's all that is so there are no real priests but the ulema enjoy a great recognition and authority and they come from the top level of society as a rule some of the ulema at times have claimed that their declarations are infallible not everybody agreed of course so there was another disputation about something

Question 70

About the year AD 900 (Christian calendar), the ulema announced their work was finished and no further interpretations of Islam would be necessary. Well, that proved to be unworkable. Name 8 sharia laws.

Answer 70

forbids 1. gambling 2. alcoholic beverages 3. eating pork 4. usury allowed 5. slavery, but it does forbid cruelty toward slaves required 6. seek conversion of pagans and polytheists (Christians) 7. destroy people who willfully reject Islam 8. some protection for "people of the book" but have to pay a very heavy tax and Muslims forbidden to intermarry wit them.

Question 71

Name two Muslim states that don't accept Sharia law.

Answer 71

not all muslim states accept the sharia give you two good examples turkey and morocco they do not accept them but there are radical elements that work in turkey and iraq and morocco who right now are plotting to overthrow the governments of that those countries and replace them with jihadist muslim authorities

Question 72

What happened with Egypt and Sharia law a decade ago?

Answer 72

in egypt the muslim brotherhood attempted to oppose sharia about a decade ago it won a political election and therefore announced that the law of sharia would replace all the existing laws on the books in egypt's government at that point the egyptian army revolted and took control of the country and today it is still a military state and the idea was to prevent the fanatical muslims from keeping control and leading egypt perhaps to disaster and the current president of egypt startled the world a few years ago he's a general in the army of course and he's opposed to sharia so he's a modern thinking person and on christmas he attended a service in the egyptian orthodox church to show his goodwill toward christians i'm surprised he's still alive but he being a military man he probably has a lot of soldiers surrounding it much of the time

Question 73

Name 3 Sharia penalties

Answer 73

1. death penalty for denying the authority of the quran 2. death for criticizing Muhummad or Allah 3. death for converting to another religion

Question 74

What are 5 other enactments of sharia?

Answer 74

1. a man may marry an infant and consummate the marriage with her when she reaches age 9 2. women must have a husband's permission to seek a divorce 3. a woman must have four male witnesses to prove allegations of rape 4. in court testimony, a woman's testimony carries only half the weight of that from a man 5. a woman may not speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative

Question 75

Countries with majority Muslim populations who do not follow Sharia law are now likely to experience violent terrorist atttacks as occurred recently in whch 4 countries? The situation is very tenous in ______ because...

Answer 75

Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, and Malaysia Turkey because the current president of turkey sometimes talks as though he sympathizes with the jihadist we'll see what that happens most of the killings are the work of muslims who attack other muslims and that's because of disagreements about the proper interpretation of the faith

Question 76

Why does the Koran allow for multiple wives?

Answer 76

then an interesting aside in this regard would be to say a little bit more about the status of women in islam in general islam portrays a very low view of women it allows men to have four wives and they may re divorce their wives for any reason at any time but wives may not divorce their husbands without the husband's permission men have the right to punish their wives even to beat them if necessary muhammad had 11 wives but he was not polygamous until his first wife khadijah died the reason islam allowed for multiple wives is probably not self-evident we think well they're a bunch of dirty old men who want sexual pleasure on a wrong basis or so they have four wives that's not the answer the answer is more pragmatic because in the first few centuries of islamic history the muslims were almost always at war with somebody and of course muslim soldiers died in battle leaving women and children without any support and so the provision for four wives would give them some hope of support in the event that the original husband died in battle so it's an economic issue really when it comes right down to it

Question 77

Give 4 examples of prominent Muslim women early in the movement.

Answer 77

despite the inferior status of women in practice some women have become prominent in public life and strange as it seems that began very early in the history of the movement 1.khadijah the first wife outlived her husband by several years and she was very successful in commerce before they even met she was owner of a camel caravan business bequeathed to her by her late husband so she was a woman of some wealth and influence 2. women sometimes joined men in combat and military affairs so they took great risk for the religion and we know from our own situation today that women have sometimes given their lives as suicide bombers and I sometimes hear after such an attack has taken place and the muslims have killed the number of people they're dirty cowards they're not cowards they're very brave they're willing to take a risk of life and limb and they often pay the price because they think that that means immediate salvation 3. muslim history is full of tales of heroic female warriors who set an example for all women 4. the last wife of muhammad and his favorite at the end of his life was aisha a-i-s-h-a and she provided a lot of information for the hadith and she her close association with her husband put her in a position to speak with some credibility about him and his teaching

Question 78

In the middle ages, the prominence of women dimished as...

Answer 78

the codification of muslim law was taking place and the male domination became more intense islam emphasized the proper role of women to be domestic rather than public activity they were at times to be allowed to be teachers of religion usually teachers to children the end result of this development was to exclude women from most of public life and to seclude them in their homes

Question 79

Where do you see the exclusion of women from public life most graphically?

Answer 79

now the place you see this very graphically vividly is afghanistan the afghan muslims are known as a taliban or at least many of them belong to that faction known as the taliban and the taliban demands that women wear the burqa which is the gown it goes right from the head all the way to the feet has little slits for the eye and they're not allowed to expose their face at any time they're in public not only that women are not permitted to go to school they're to be kept illiterate education is for males alone yet the devotion of women to the cult is amazing at times and they will become suicide bombers when they think the occasion calls for it

Question 80

In the modern era, some muslim societies have enlarged the role of women. Name two early countries here as well as why these two countries enlarged the role of women.

Answer 80

but in the modern era some muslim societies have enlarged the role of women this occurred in egypt by about 1900 but the reason it occurred in egypt was egypt was under british control at the time and therefore western ideas and institutions appeared on egyptian soil because of the british presence there and this led to some some women in asia speaking their peace and demanding recognition similar changes came in india and pakistan both of them were under british rule for quite a while

Question 81

Name 2 examples of women in political power in Muslim countries.

Answer 81

for the 20th century pakistan had a woman prime minister her name was benazir bhutto b-u-t-t-o benazir bhutto she was prime minister of pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 96. indonesia elected a female president in the year 2001 but the office of president is largely a ceremonial affair that's the case in most countries that have a parliamentary form of government the prime minister is really the chief executive but still it was an amazing concession to the women that the woman would become president of indonesia

Question 82

What has inspired a feminist movement in some Muslim countries?

Answer 82

reactions to these concessions and to western ideas have been loud loudly declared by women who have been westernized in their orientation they know how women live in the western world and they want to be able to live that way themselves so there is a feminist movement taking place in many muslim states today what is the old-fashioned states where the sharia law remains women are not to appear in public without veils on them in afghanistan this belief extended to denying women education as i said and the taliban represent the extremist view of islam in some countries feminist movements though are open and above board and they're trying to affect sweeping change their success varies from one episode or one country to another for those countries that had a long colonial experience with the western powers we're the ones that are most open to modern ideas and thinking about the role of women

Question 83

When Mohammad died in ____, he did not name a successor nor did he create a structure of government to take over what he was doing why he failed to do those things nobody knows but he did not do them. Who became the leaders?

Answer 83

the leaders of the movement were largely men who had served with muhammad and sometimes risked their lives for the sake of the cult and among them the top echelon will be known as khalifs c-a-l-i-p-h-s khalifs and the rule of the caliphs began soon after muhammad died and continued for about 30 years

Question 84

Who became the first chief caliph?

Answer 84

muhammad had no male heirs surviving he had one daughter that was all even though he had 11 wives he had lots of children but they died in infancy his father-in-law abu bakr became the chief caliph and that you might translate as deputy the deputy of the prophet but he lived only two years

Question 85

Who became the next caliph after Abu Bakr died? What did he do?

Answer 85

when abu bakr died omar a very successful general in the army became the khalif and he led a large expansion of territory for about 10 years omar was able to add syria and persia to the growing empire the arabs remember even before they became muslims had a position they called razia razia are raiding it and they conquered territory in doing that and sometimes incorporated that territory into a growing muslim empire

Question 86

Eventually, the Muslims took over which 5 areas before the Battle of Tours?

Answer 86

eventually they took over in egypt north africa spain sicily and malta

Question 87

When was the Battle of Tours and what happened?

Answer 87

in 732 they met a showdown in the showdown battle they met the the franks from what is today france their leader was charles martel and the great military leader he was and he dealt the muslims a very punishing blow sent them fleeing in hopeless disarray they got to tour t.o.u.r.s in france that's the high water mark they did not advance beyond that and you can thank charles martel and the franks

Question 88

What is one reason why the Muslim advances were impressive?

Answer 88

there were two other powers that had been entrenched in that region of the east one was persia and the other was the byzantine empire we used to call the eastern roman empire but it never was really roman greek and as those powers declined the muslims took advantage of the vacuum and they extended their own control

Question 89

Why did many Egyptians welcome the Muslims coming into their territory?

Answer 89

because they were filled with animosity toward the byzantine empire which governed the egypt at the time and taxed the people very very heavily so many people in egypt regarded the byzantines as oppressors and the muslims as liberators

Question 90

What happened after the death of the fourth caliph?

Answer 90

after the death of the fourth khalif the capital moved from from mecca to damascus in syria and a kind dynasty of muslim leaders conquered most of north africa and in 711 they crossed the straits of gibraltar and landed in spain

Question 91

When did the Muslim leaders cross into Spain?

Answer 91

and in 711 they crossed the straits of gibraltar and landed in spain

Question 92

How much of Spain did the Muslims conquer?

Answer 92

that terrified many in europe and they fought and they gained control of about uh 80% of spanish territory up in the far north of spain they were little kinglets we might call them where the catholic forces dug in and maintained their identity

Question 93

What gave the muslims the zeal to cross over into Spain?

Answer 93

as the arabs landed in north africa and moved toward the west in some ways some of them began to lose zeal for expansion they became accustomed to living in north africa they decided it was a place to remain and why risk anything like crossing over to spain but enough of them agreed on the conquest of spain and most of them were not arabs because in north africa the muslims encountered a native population of people called berbers berbers the berbers were b p e r b e r s burr bears they're well known for the manufacture and sale of exquisitely beautiful carpets like the persians in that regard well the berbers found islam very appealing they embraced it very enthusiastically and they injected into the movement a new zeal a new zeal that carried the movement forward so as the arab muslims were lapsing in their zeal the berbers were full of it and and moved rapidly towards the west crossed over into spain and made a great spanish muslim state

Question 94

Why were the Muslism there own worst enemies when they got into Spain?

Answer 94

when they got into spain though they proved to be their own worst enemies they fought among themselves particularly about issues of who would get which territory and that weakened the cause. sometimes the arabs looked down upon the non-arabs as inferiors and they paid their soldiers less than the arabs received that of course led to resentment and some of the resentment led to fighting muslim against muslim and that weakened the whole operation in in spain . although the muslims remained in in spain as a potent military and political force until an interesting date they arrived in 711 and they lost their last hold of territory in spain in 1492.

Question 95

The Muslims had a stronghold in Spain from when until when?

Answer 95

they arrived in 711 and they lost their last hold of territory in spain in 1492. same year columbus sailed the ocean blue as interesting columbus receives his financial support from the queen and king of spain who had who had been fighting muslims for a long long time and slowly driving them back so by 1492 the last muslim touhou was taken and there was no longer a major presence of our of uh muslims in spain

Question 96

By the middle of the 8th century, 750 or thereabouts, another dynasty of caliphs moved over into Persia and settled in the area around Baghdad which became their capital. These were the _____. What did they do?

Answer 96

this family is known as the abbasid family a b b a s i d this is a movement that carried islam to the zenith of its achievement persian islam was one of the cultural wonders of the ancient world but muslims there were not simple nomads instead they were highly talented highly cultured well-educated people they had a flourishing civilization before islam arrives and at the time that europe was like languishing in the so-called dark ages the muslims in persia were outshining all european grandeur

Question 97

The Muslim Arabs made important progress in medicine.For example...

Answer 97

the arabs were highly proficient physicians they produced medical literature which was translated into greek and circulated throughout the west and they for example there was one was a persian physician al razi by name r-a-z-i al ratzi and he produced the book entitled smallpox and measles the diagnosis and treatment of smallpox and measles far ahead of anything europeans had achieved so far and before long muslim writers have produced a handbook for the practice of medicine they call it the canon of medicine that was immensely popular in the west translated into greek then into latin

Question 98

Who was Omar Khayyam?

Answer 98

then there was Omar Khayyam who was a brilliant poet and mathematician his work is now readily available in english and many people seem to enjoy it

Question 99

Who was Ibn Khaldun?

Answer 99

Ibn Khaldun was another he was a man who uh to be exact was a heretical muslim yeah a brilliant writer brilliant mathematician and poet but he interpreted history in a cyclical manner and you've heard the old adage history always does what repeats itself always repeats itself i can't tell you how many times i've heard christians say that oh dr mcgoldrick you're a historian isn't it great how history always repeats itself and i say excuse me while i throw up well if anything even as scant knowledge of the bible would show that christians don't believe in the cyclical view of history that's an old greek and roman belief it has pagan origins and pagan implications because in a cyclical view of history humanity human beings don't know where they came from they don't know why they're here they don't know where they're going and they can't and so Ibn Khaldun was a a purveyor of heresy but for nevertheless his influence reached western europe and there were scholars there who moved in the same direction

Question 100

Who was Averroës?

Answer 100

he was a skillful interpreter aristotle and he used aristotle's logic to conduct muslim apologetics later in medieval europe the famous thomas aquinas tried to refute the muslim criticisms of christianity by using the same method and arguments that Averroës developed to defend islam turkish islam although it and other nationalities have a broad common belief in the teachings of islam they they are often at la at odds with one another it matters with political implications

Question 101

Why was Spanish Islam for awhile completely independent of the Islam in the East?

Answer 101

early in the movement a survivor from the abbasid dynasty massacred the umayyads and established a cordova caliphate cordova is a city in spain so spanish islam then for a while was completely independent of the islam in the east

Question 102

What happened when the Turks accepted Islam?

Answer 102

later the turks accepted islam and when they did they took control of most of its empire the turks began as a threat to the byzantine empire too and the emperor in constantinople was so frightened by turkish power he appealed to the west for help and the first crusade was the response with the pope calling for the powers in europe to march to the east and save the eastern empire and the holy land the turks were so ill-mannered they didn't mind conquering other muslims and when the turks conquered the abbasid empire they became an even greater threat to constantinople in 1453 they conquered Constantinople and that was the end of the eastern roman empire byzantine empire long before the fall of constantinople the ancient patriarchs of jerusalem antioch and alexandria had become muslim areas this made constantinople the most important and influential of the eastern patriarchates in the 7th century 424 bishops in the east were still in communion with constantinople and they were only indirectly related to rome

Question 103

After the death of Muhammad, which were the two dynasties established by caliphs?

Answer 103

Umayyad dynasty of Damascus | Abassid Rule from Baghdad

Question 104

After WWI, how was a good portion of Arab and Muslim territory in the east divided?

Answer 104

now i want to try to relate this to not only to the situation as it was then but to see the relevance of islamic influence in the world today in world war one the allied victories enabled the western powers to conquer and rule a good portion of arab and muslim territory in the east in fact when the war was over and the peace treaties were being signed the league of nations then mandated these territories and separated the territory and gave abortion to britain and abortion to france and they were to divide the middle east between them britain in and control of egypt palestine jordan and iraq while france held syria and lebanon and meanwhile most of africa plus india and east indies too were colonial holdings under the authority of european powers england france and even the netherlands these arrangements grant gradually excited native opposition in which religion was an important factor allied with a growing spirit of nationalism limitations stipulated that the europeans would prepare their territories for eventual independence

Question 105

Since Turkey was one of the losers in WWI...

Answer 105

now since turkey was one of the losers in the war turkey could no longer maintain its imperial holdings the victors took all that away from turkey the turks concentrated on making their own country a modern secular state

Question 106

Why did Islam in British and French territories remain very strong?

Answer 106

and in the british and french territories islam remained very strong for those powers allowed freedom of religion world war ii world war ii brought dynamic changes that made the continuation of colonial domination no longer tenable so the arab states and muslim lands in black africa gradually gained their independence in the 20th century

Question 107

When was the state of Israel created? What was the result?

Answer 107

the state of israel was created in 1948 and this of course further complicated the position for arabs and muslims in that region and so a very strong arab national nationalist movement appeared in several places nourished by a fervent commitment to islam

Question 108

As the European empires lost territories, the former colonial powers tried to create a way of keeping the territories at least on an amicable and friendly basis, and this gave birth two two organizations...

Answer 108

1. one was known as the british commonwealth of nations which is still in existence today 2. the other was the french union which is no longer in effect but these efforts enjoyed some success in muslim lands but resistance was strong just the same

Question 109

Why did many Muslims migrate to Europe in the 20th century?

Answer 109

the former imperial powers opened their doors to people who sought to migrate to europe and many who did so who migrated to europe were people of devout muslim persuasion who were looking for a better standard of living which would of course be available to them in europe when the massive warfare erupted in arab lands a huge number of refugees flooded into europe the british and french for example opened their doors wide and took these people in and then other countries did the same thing until eventually here's what happened these are approximate figures now a couple of years old already how many muslims settled in the european powers france 5.7 million 5.7 million germany 4.9 million britain 4.1 million and you can see then that this amounts to about 20 million people or more and some of them were absolutely determined they would not permit themselves to be assimilated into european culture but they were going to remain a separate identity while while they lived in foreign lands these relocations of muslims threatened to transfer the quarrels of the middle east to european soil and among the migrants were people now connected with what we call international terrorist organizations such as al qaeda [Music] isis and other terroristic bodies

Question 110

About how much of the world population is Muslim today?

Answer 110

about one-third of the world population today is muslim and islam is second only to christianity in the size of its adherents I use the term christianity very loosely there but islam is the fastest growing religion on planet earth and this is one reason for it the main reason for it is a very high birth rate among muslims no matter where they live

Question 111

Why is Islam a threat today?

Answer 111

now sometimes we might think that islam is not as much of a threat as people tell us don't fall for that islam is a major threat to all the free peoples of the world and today about a fifth of the world population is muslim and that religion is the fastest growing religion on earth if suppose only five percent of the world's muslims either became terrorists or supported the terrorists only five percent that doesn't seem like so many to your arithmetic that's 75 million people you can't get comfortable knowing that 75 million people are aligned with the terrorists however evil the terrorists may be they are people who are very brave they're full of zeal for their religion and willing to risk everything in order to get control suicide bombers for example as i mentioned are certainly not cowardly people they're brave but they're very much invested in the wrong ideology

Question 112

Why do Middle Eastern countries today all have Christian minorities?

Answer 112

now while the european powers ruled muslim lands christian missionaries were very welcome and that's why the middle eastern countries today all have christian minorities the successors of the missionaries were not impressive in terms of numbers and the missionary force was not adequate for the task the end of colonial rule brought muslims into political power and true to their heritage they began excluding missionaries and persecuting native christians

Question 113

Describe Islam's god.

Answer 113

muslims emphasize the transcendence of god they emphasize that so strongly that allah is remote and almost unapproachable his will is supreme and it is irresistible and it is only the only basis for his relation relations with human beings in islam there is very little attention given to the love of god humans are entirely god's subjects they are never god's children god has never become human muslim prayers are specific rituals recited as dictated by the quran and the hadith and spontaneous private prayer is allowed but not in public religious services

Question 114

Why do Muslims equate Christianity with polytheism?

Answer 114

the muslims think that christians worship three gods and one version of their warped understanding is to say that the three components of a trinity are father son and virgin mary we believe in cited that before and anyhow they equate christianity with polytheism

Question 115

What to do Muslims think of Jesus?

Answer 115

although the muslims revere jesus as a prophet and a messiah they do not regard him as a redeemer as i mentioned before i'll do it again for sake of emphasis god's love receives very little emphasis in the thinking of muslims this reflects the muslim beliefs that god is very remote very distant and not in intimate contact with ordinary human beings

Question 116

How does divine love work in Islam?

Answer 116

muslims think that they know the truth about god but they do not claim to know god personally divine love applies only to those who obey god's will and there is no concept of a universal love for god or nothing comparable in the quran to john 3 16. allah does not correspond to abba in the new testament when the quran mentions allah as compassionate he likens him to a warrior king who has chosen to be merciful and lenient in dealing with his people he has conquered

Question 117

Surah 29 asserts that Christians and Muslims worship the same god the concept of god in these religions is vastly different so these quranic assertion that they there's a common god between christianity and islam is really quite incorrect, where Muslim rulers have allowed Jews and Christians limited toleration, they have ________ and often refer to them as _______. Some hadiths call for ________.

Answer 117

taxed those people heavily pagans execution of any muslim who defects to another religion any believer may perform that killing so that for take an example say i'm i'm a devout muslim a younger brother becomes a christian well i mean he becomes a christian he becomes my enemy and therefore he should be subject to execution and i have the right to execute him on my own i don't have to go through a court for a trial just put him to death

Question 118

Surah 10 shows Allah as reported to saying to Muhammad, would you compel men until they are believers? It is not for any would to believe except by _____. But the same quran presents the other point of view...

Answer 118

the permission of allah it is well to punish muslims who defect and it is well to repress christians and jews who might adulterate the muslim culture

Question 119

How do some Muslim scholars explain jihad in their attempt to portray Islam as very pacific religion?

Answer 119

some muslim scholars portrayed islam as a very pacific religion they're going in the face of a huge amount of contrary evidence but they do it sometimes just the same they think of jihad of course but they say it's a spiritual jihad it's not militant it's not physical or punitive but the primary meaning of the term jihad is armed combat against the unbelievers

Question 120

Why do Muslims say there is no need for an atoning sacrifice? This shows an inadquate understanding of _________.

Answer 120

how about the person and work of christ muslims revere jesus as a prophet and as the messiah but they do not regard him as the redeemer they hold that there is no need for an atoning sacrifice since allah can forgive sins by a sheer act of his will. this shows an inadequate understanding of god's justice christians on the contrary assert that god is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus

Question 121

now the muslim scholars are very familiar with the bible it does not impress them except adversely and they contend that the condition of the bible is due to ...

Answer 121

disgraceful behavior on the part of jewish and christian scholars who altered the text drastically and so the allah revealed to in the quran is different from the god of the bible that is for certain

Question 122

careful research has ascertained that there is a book that the muslim scholars have adopted it is christian in origin or so they think and they claim it it gives the correct interpretation of the gospel it's called the....

Answer 122

Gospel According to Barnabas

Question 123

What is the Gospel According to Barnabas?

Answer 123

an old forgery had nothing to do with barnabas himself and it really didn't come into being until well into the middle ages a a monk in italy found a copy of it in the papal library in 1590 and after studying it he became a muslim but by the 16th century this book was being held as convincing evidence that the traditional christian understanding of the gospel is altogether wrong by offering statements from the new testament gospels the author of barnabas deliberately falsified material to suit his purpose although they subscribe to all the basic principles

Question 124

Name the movement within Islam that enjoys popularity and at other times is persecuted. They have a mystical approach to the religion that contrasts rather sharply with the dry legalistic ritualistic character of traditional Islam.

Answer 124

Sufis

Question 125

The practice of sufism became evident in the ________ century as a movement toward __________. It coincided with _______.

Answer 125

tenth personal spirituality the codification of Muslim law and scholarly interpretations of the Quran.

Question 126

The meaning of the term Sufi is quite unclear, it may derive from...

Answer 126

the arabic term safa safa which means purity or safwa s-a-f-w-a chosen ones we don't know for sure

Question 127

Sufi is an effort to make Islam a ____

Answer 127

more emotionally satisfying personal religion less formality and closer approach to god

Question 128

It appears Muhammad's reputed ascension into heaven encouraged (in Sufism)...

Answer 128

the belief that the souls of devout believers could rise to a personal encounter with allah such people thereby could acquire special knowledge of god

Question 129

The sufis claim Muhammad himself is their model since...

Answer 129

since he practiced introspection and meditation on a regular basis the sufis therefore practice retreating to seclusion for their private devotions

Question 130

Sufism gained a lot of acceptance in ____ and ____. That's where the ____ wing of Islam is prominent.

Answer 130

Iraq and Iran | Shia or Shiite

Question 131

The Shiite is a prominent school of Islam which features...

Answer 131

protracted prayer beyond the obligatory five days daily and it shows that these prayers are regarded as truly meritorious and make contributions toward a person's salvation so it is a concept of works righteousness

Question 132

Why do sufis clash at times with traditional muslims?

Answer 132

the sufi's emphasis upon private devotion clashed at times with traditional muslim and the sufi practice does imply tension with traditional belief in the finality of the quran and the sufis denied any such tension existed and

Question 133

In spite of opposition, Sufism gained acceptance in some areas and so ____ began to emerge providing... In those circles worship features...

Answer 133

private bodies began to emerge, we could call them lodges something like masonic lodges but with different content sufi lodges emerge to provide a formal organization to promote what i think we could call a charismatic form of islam i'd see no hesitation to do that exciting chants beating of drums swaying of bodies even claims of trances and receiving receiving divine revelation in trances and dreams

Question 134

The sufis in general are an _____ movement, but one which

Answer 134

the sufis in general are an elitist movement but one which often receives the approval and reverence from ordinary muslims

Question 135

Some _______ enjoy recognition as spiritual authorities who are in ultimate and intimate contact with allah these people would roughly correspond to the idea of muslim saints

Answer 135

Shiite Imams

Question 136

Backlashes against the Sufi influence have occurred in both _____ and _____ communities and there has been _____ at times. Often Sufis have...

Answer 136

Sunni Shiite persecution fled into hiding until the atmosphere became more receptive

Question 137

When conditions were favorable, the sufis have conducted public services sometimes at the

Answer 137

tombs of sufi saints

Question 138

now the belief in a personal relationship with allah does conflict sharply with the traditional belief in the absolute transcendence of god sufis promote love for god but

Answer 138

they have no assurance that god loves them

Question 139

the disapproval of sufism came from conservative people called _____ who insisted on the exclusive authority of the ____ and the ____ as expounded by people called _________.

Answer 139

salafis quran sunnah companions of the prophet and that's what they were while muhammad was alive they were his closest companions and so therefore they had did not inherit an official office but they did inherit accepted some of the common people as spokesmen for authentic islam

Question 140

Sufis claim to support their _______. Even these conservatives are remarkable in that they contend that _____

Answer 140

spiritual ancestors or authorities reliance upon the original sources of revelation will assist them in relating to the modern world. That's an odd argument there which seems to very much the other way. they claim that true islam is fully compatible with modern thinking and reliance on medieval sources makes that difficult if not impossible so there are modernists then within the ranks of islam comparable to the modernists who infected protestantism beginning in the 19th century

Question 141

Who are the neo-salafis?

Answer 141

the jihadist calling for a militant action against non-conforming muslims and infidels has led to bloodshed on occasion. Terrorists such as al qaeda and isis have appropriated the concept of salafi to themselves. Earlier salafis have proposed to make claims of islam tenable in modern society. They propose to do this through scholarship not through violence, but jihadist view of islam continue to gain ground. and to show their disapproval of the moderates and the moderates call themselves neo-salafis. you've heard of the neo this neo that, well there's one of islam to neo salafis

Question 142

Early Muslim thinking about ethical issues was influenced by what?

Answer 142

another feature of contrast between islam and the moderate world is dealing with ethical issues early muslim thinking here reflects the influence of arabia and that ancient culture which was absorbed elements of prussian greek and indian philosophy. Sufi mysticism was a factor in the ethical ideas as well discoveries about morality or discourses about morality are drawn from the quran and sunnah and it focuses on muhammad as the paragon of islamic virtues. He was the exemplar and some muslims have regarded him as an infallible teacher

Question 143

Surah 68 says what about the parents' role?

Answer 143

surah 68 says this: You muhammad have been enabled with a noble character and parents were the initial teachers of morality in the early muslim era and they were to inculcate basic principles that no one should inflict harm on another, but then we have to look at the practice there's a gap between theory and practice in theory parents are to inculcate stern moral virtues in practice the parents and others engage in ratseya raid jihad terrorists operations and blood feuds the gulf between principle and practice is obvious

Question 144

As time passed _____ became the most formative influence upon the development of Muslim ethics.

Answer 144

Sharia Law

Question 145

later versions of ethics eventually appeared as islam under persian influence became more cultural more scholarly and more refined it produced learned teachers who issued many directives of an ethical and moral nature among them was....

Answer 145

the issue about what are the conditions that would justify taking human life?

Question 146

Muslim scholars in general maintain that killing was permissible in what three cases?

Answer 146

1. punishment for crime 2. self-defense 3. restoring order in time of chaos

Question 147

In traditional Islam, the right to inflict death to avenge murder belongs to...

Answer 147

the victim's family so once again if they think they're entitled to justice they're entitled to go get it by whatever means they have available they don't have to go through the mediation of a court trial

Question 148

What is the majority view with regard to abortion?

Answer 148

The majority view though allows for abortion in a rather broad way according to the modern view among muslims the soul does not enter the body of a pregnant woman until 120 days after conception at any time during the first 120 days abortion is permissible for any reason after that it is not except to save the life of the mother

Question 149

What is the Musllim view on euthanasia?

Answer 149

The same development occurred in regard to euthanasia muslim authorities are emphatic in kademic euthanasia

Question 150

How do Muslims view homosexuality?

Answer 150

sexual ethics are very important too muslims of all almost all shades of opinion are dead set against homosexuals they regard it as a grave sin and the muslim courts prescribe flogging as punishment and sometimes judges will declare excommunication of offenders there is no uniform view among the ethicists though there's a lot of variety sorry islam is somewhat ambiguous too about the punishment for the perversion of homosexuality some muslim judges would be very severe others would be less so

Question 151

What is fatwa?

Answer 151

one legal and ethical device of importance in islam is known as fatwa f-a-t-w-a literally it means judgment a legal judgment coming from a court or issued by as a legal argument or declaration from a religious leader the pronouncement if the if the pronouncement comes from a leader such as a mufti it is independent of any judicial procedure it's not necessary to take it to court

Question 152

What was the notorious use of the fatwa in the 1960s?

Answer 152

a notorious use of the fatwa occurred in 1960s there was a iranian leader known as Ayatollah Khomeini and he issued a fatwa on his own and called for the killing of a man named Salman Rushdie Rushdie was an english novelist who published the book of satanic verses and the satanic verses he attributed to some islamic leaders with his own authority. Khomeini sentenced Rushdie to death because his novel criticized islam and its leaders in particular and so for a number of years this fatwa has been in effect and muslims are at liberty at any time to take the life of Salmon Rushdie if they can find him well he fled from the middle east and he fled from england and he landed in the united states and went into hiding and as far as i know he's still hiding so that's an example of the use of fatwa without any real judicial procedure

Question 153

What is an ayatollah? What do you call an Muslim seminary?

Answer 153

ayatollah is a exalted title warned by the imams in iran the term ayatollah means sign of god that refers to high-ranking clerics in the shiite version of islam men who have become respected scholars in matters of law they must be published authors and graduates of seminaries the muslim seminars are called madrasas madrasas they hold the highest positions that is the ayatollahs hold the highest positions in the muslim hierarchy although there is an elite among them some scholars have been entitled as grand ayatollahs so that they're a notch higher - this is especially true since 1979 when the ayatollahs joined forces with uprising against the government of the shah of iran and they drove him out and declared iran an islamic republic and that is its status today

Question 154

so truly zealous muslims who are thoroughly committed to preserving and extending the faith their goal is to introduce...

Answer 154

sharia law every place that they rule so that if any culture had been under some other rule that other rule had to go and sharia was to take its place this practice has not been uniformly successful by any means but the practice of sharia poses serious problems when muslims try to implement it in non-muslim lands and in for example the usa muslim leaders frankly admit western forms of representative government are freely elected by the voters without a religious test contrary to their faith but they don't like that they want to end that situation where everybody has the right to choose his own religion

Question 155

What is the struggle when less doctrinaire muslims try to accommodate themselves to western influences?

Answer 155

there are less doctrinaire muslims who try to accommodate themselves to western influences and institutions but the ideologues are stirred in their refusal to be assimilated into a pluralist culture and they work instead until they think they will reach the point of power that they can impose sharia on that area

Question 156

Islam believes that history is moving toward...

Answer 156

a fulfillment in the end times which will enthrone islam in the eyes of the whole human race

Question 157

if an when Muslims get control of a nation they will then be in a position...

Answer 157

to abolish all civil rights outside the teachings of islam and some of them are boasting as they intend to do it

Question 158

What is tagiyya?

Answer 158

another ethical question that should be examined i think is the question of honesty the muslims in principle enshrine honesty as a high and glorious virtue there's a arabic word taqiyya taqiyya and it means dissimulation or deliberate dishonesty for a good cause during the time when the shiites first faced persecution from the sunnis shiat imams advise their people to resort to a deception in order to save their followers who are in danger outwardly those believers would adhere to the sunni teaching which is the majority view well inwardly they were to retain personal shiite allegiance pretense then became their practice surah 3 exempts persecuted muslims from their responsibility to be truthful now jesus called satan a liar and the father of lies but moreover if christians lied to avoid persecution they would incur the disfavor of their savior jesus is the way the truth and the life and jesus calls upon his followers to be truthful in all circumstances there's no uniformity among muslims even among their scholars as to when taqiyya is permissible it does conflict with the exultation of martyrdom surah 16 declares doom for apostates but it exempts here it is him who is forced thereto and his heart is still content with the faith so that if in his heart he remains committed to islam it's permissible to deny that commitment in order to save one's life

Question 159

What do Muslim scholars resort to in denying the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus?

Answer 159

now we've seen already that muslim scholars deny the crucifixion and resurrection of jesus and they often resort to critical modern commentators and theologians who argue argues new testament documents are not reliable they contend that the new testament narratives are in a corrupted state and paul is responsible for most of it his writings completely misrepresent the real teachings of jesus now some muslim apologists cited european rationalist scholars who denied the possibility of resurrection of anybody and they speculated that christ did not actually die on the cross and recovered from his injuries and appeared to have risen from the dead when he was never dead to begin with that's not the impression i get from reading the new testament he was dead muslims argue that the best non-muslim scholarship supports the quranic view of christ's alleged death and resurrection alleged folks