ISLAM: KNOW THE BASICS - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

Most Westerners who meet the average Muslim come away from the experience impressed by how well the Muslims know their scripture, the Qur'an. However, keep in mind that most Muslims have never read the entire Qur'an or the collections of hadith (words/teachings of Muhammad), and they are simply repeating those verses that their imams (religious teachers) taught them.

Most moderate Muslims, who are devout and believe in their idea of Islam as a peaceful, tolerant religion, would be shocked if they were to discover what their own religion truly teaches. When Muslims who have not fully studied Islam, especially those from more liberal Islamic countries such as Morocco, are presented with the violent, intolerant and oppressive teachings of their religion, they will often react with shock, offense and denial, for they are being presented with teachings they have truly never read before. For this reason, Westerners are advised to study the Qur'an and teachings of Muhammad themselves, rather than take others at their word, so that Westerners can converse about Islam knowledgeably.

Islam is a religion that originated in the Middle East in the 7th century, at a time when much of the region was polytheistic. Its founder and prophet was Muhammad, an Arabian man born in Mecca in 570 A.D. in what is present day Saudi Arabia. The holy scripture of Islam is the Qur'an (also spelled as Koran), a collection of progressive revelations supposedly given to Muhammad over the course of 23 years by a spiritual being, between the years 610 A.D. and 632 A.D. Progressive in this context means that the revelations that began as peaceful and tolerant eventually gave way and were replaced by scriptures that were violent, intolerant and commanded Muslims to fight non-Muslims until Islam was the one world religion. Please see the God Loves, Allah Hates page for more details on this progression.

Since Muhammad was reportedly illiterate, he would receive a revelation from the spirit, recite it to his people, and they would then copy the new bit of scripture down onto whatever scraps of material were available.....leather, papyrus, white stones, wood pieces, sheep bones, tree bark, etc. Within 15 years of Muhammad's death, there were as many as 24 different versions of the Qur'an in existence. When disagreements surfaced between Muslims over which version to follow, the Islamic leader at the time, Caliph Uthman, arbitrarily determined that the version created by Zaid ibn Thabit, Muhammad's secretary, would be the official version. Caliph Uthman ordered that all other versions of the Qur'an be destroyed, resulting in one version that is still in circulation today.

The Qur'an is written in classical Arabic. It is separated into 114 chapters called suras. The suras are not organized by the date on which they were revealed to Muhammad or by topic. Rather, the suras are organized by length, with the Qur'an starting with the longest chapters and ending with the shortest chapters, with the exception of Sura 1 (Prologue), which is only 7 verses. There are a total of 6,116 verses in the text, known as ayats. The Qur'an can be very confusing, as newer revelations Muhammad received were often added into older ones as the spiritual being directed, leading to chapters that have very disparate and disconnected topics. Also, since the Qur'an is ordered by chapter length rather than chronological order, it is difficult to understand how Muhammad's ideas and teachings evolved.

Muslims are required to believe in and follow as literally as possible the teachings of the Qur'an, the hadith, and the sunnah. While the Qur'an is the word of Allah, the hadiths are the teachings of Muhammad himself, and the sunnah are the actions or behaviors of Muhammad. The hadiths have numbered into the hundreds of thousands, with the collections varying in length. Eventually, Muslim scholars came to rely on 6 principal collections of hadiths that they deemed most authoritative, with the collections of Bukhari and Muslim being the most trusted among the 6 collections.

In addition to the Qur'an, hadiths, and sunnah, Islam requires the implementation and adherence to shari'ah law. Shari'ah literally means "the path" or "the way", and it is a legal system based on the principals taught in Islam, so that there is no separation of church and state, but rather an all-encompassing ideology that dictates the rules for law, religion and personal conduct. Fiqh, which means "deep understanding" or "full comprehension", is an expansion of shari'ah law to establish laws covering the observance of rituals, morals, and social legislation.

The 5 main principals, or pillars, of Islam that each Muslim must adhere to in order to have a hope of entering heaven are:

The Shahadah, or creed, which states that "I testify that there is none worthy of worship but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God."
Salah, or ritual prayers, which must be performed and recited 5 times a day while facing the Ka'aba in Mecca at dawn, noon, the afternoon, at sunset, and at nightfall.
Zakat, or giving to the poor or to spread the message of Islam. Only zakat to poor Muslims and Muslim charities or organizations is acceptable.
Sawm, or fasting from dawn until sunset for the month of Ramadan, which is recognized as the time of year during which Muhammad had his first revelation from the angel Gabriel.
The Hajj, or a once-in-a-lifetime, mandatory obligation to make the pilgrimage to Mecca during the holy month of Dhu al-Hijjah. However, those granted the right to make the hajj are now determined by a lottery due to the millions of Muslims who want to make the pilgrimage each year.

Jihad, meaning "to strive or struggle", is often referred to as the 6th pillar of Islam. Jihad refers both to an internal struggle (the greater jihad) to do what is right, as well as an external, warfare struggle (the lesser jihad) against non-Muslims to spread the acceptance of Islam as the only acceptable religion. See the God Loves, Allah Hates page for greater detail on the evolution of Islam from a peaceful religion that sought acceptance to a violent, intolerant ideology.

Muslims are split into 2 groups. The Sunni Muslims, which account for roughly 90% of the Islamic population, and the Shi'a Muslims, who account for 10% of Muslims and live predominantly in Iran. Unlike the Sunnis, the Shi'as do not recognize any leaders (Caliphs) after Muhammad except those who were directly related to Muhammad and therefore reject the first 3 Caliphs who ruled after his death.

Islam has an extensive list of what is and is not permitted to its people. Among these rules are that Muslims are not permitted to eat pork (1), drink wine or alcohol (2), have pictures in their homes (3), drink or eat with gold or silver utensils and glasses (4), or have tattoos or piercings other than earrings for women (5). Muslim men are not permitted to wear any jewelry with gold (6) or wear any clothing that is yellow (7) or made of silk (8).

In many Arabic countries, women are not permitted to be alone with men outside of their families (9), to leave the house without covering themselves with hijab or burqa (10), or to shake hands with men (11). Men are permitted to have up to 4 wives in Islam and unlimited numbers of slave women, provided they can treat them "all equally" (12), and men can divorce their wives by simply repeating Talaq ("I divorce you") three times (13). Rape is rarely ever punished since it requires that 4 witnesses attest that it happened and, if a victim is unable to produce 4 witnesses, he or she would then be tried as having committed illegal sexual intercourse, punishable by death (14).

Also, Islam carries out capital punishment against Muslims who kill other Muslims, but only light, if any, punishments are carried out against Muslims who kill non-Muslims (15). Meanwhile, beheadings or hangings are the punishments reserved for truly horrible crimes such as being a homosexual (16), believing in a religion other than Islam (17), for Muslims who reject their religion and become apostates (18) or the crime of adultery (19). Islam also permits Muslims to kill children if they can determine that child would grow up to be a non-believer (20).

Heaven is generally a place for men only, since hell is believed to be populated mostly by women, (21) and in heaven, men will be permitted all of the sinful activities currently forbidden them on earth, including indulging in wine (22), music (23), silk clothing (24), and the sensual pleasures of 72 virginal women wearing sheer clothing and so pure that they neither urinate nor defecate (25). See the Islam's Sensual Heaven page for greater detail on Islam's teachings on heaven.

These are but a few of the glaring differences between Western civilization and Islam.

FOOTNOTES:
(1) Qur'an 5:4
(2) Qur'an 5:90
(3) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 844
(4) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 537
(5) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 815
(6) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 756
(7) Muslim hadith, Book 24, Number 5173
(8) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 815
(9) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 3, Number 85
(10) Qur'an 33:53
(11) Muslim hadith, Book 20, Number 4603
(12) Qur'an 4:3
(13) Muslim hadith, Book 9, Number 3492
(14) Qur'an 4:15 and Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 195
(15) Qur'an 48:29
(16) Qur'an 26:165-166
(17) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 9, Number 17
(18) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 4, Number 260
(19) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 6, Number 79
(20) Muslim hadith, Book 19, Number 4457
(21) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 1, Number 301
(22) Qur'an 83:25
(23) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 7, Number 494
(24) Qur'an 44:53
(25) Bukhari hadith, Vol. 4, Number 544

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