ISLAM AT A GLANCE

Brother Daniel

1. Arabia in the 7^th century

1.1. Religion

Religiously speaking 7^th century Arabia was as diverse as any society could be. Although most inhabitants were pagans, it was a diverse, albeit peaceful, society. Jews and Christians in the Arabian Peninsula numbered quite a few thousands. There were among them Sabians, those who believed only in John the Baptist, Agnostics, and followers of Deen-e-Hanif (Strict Monotheists who claimed to be following the remnants of Abraham’s teachings).[1]

1.2. Culture

A vast majority of the Arabs were pagans. The society as a whole was ridden with superstition. They believed in good and bad omens, wild interpretation of dreams, magic, clairvoyance, evil spirits, witches, evil eye, arrows of good and bad luck, etc. The fear of unseen creatures was common. Slavery was rampant therefore, those in power owned slaves and concubines.[2]

Women were primarily the objects of pleasure and subservience and they were exempted from all human rights. The birth of a girl was considered a matter of disgrace so much so that some Arabs buried their daughters alive.[3]

Drinking excessive alcohol and gambling were part of everyday life. Tribes fought endless wars in chain revenge on menial issues. Seeking revenge was a sacred duty and people took revenge even for their remote ancestors.[4]

1.3. Economy

Raising herds of livestock, camels, goats, sheep, cows, owning date palm trees and orchards, vineyards, parts of oasis, and looting were the common ways of making a living. Barter and trade were popular. Usury was rampant making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Big businessmen sent trade caravans to distant lands but trade caravans were frequently looted.[5]

2. The life of Muhammad

2.1. Early life

Muhammad was born in Mecca just about 570 years after the birth of our Lord Jesus. Before he was born his father had already died. His mother passed away when he was only six years old, and Muhammad was left an orphan. He was brought up first by his grandfather, and when he also died about a year later, by an uncle. Altogether Muhammad had five foster parents before he reached the age of eight. When Muhammad was 25 years old, he married his employer, a twice-widowed lady by the name of Khadijah. They had several children, but their only son died as a little child.[6]

2.2. Prophetic Career

At the age of forty Muhammad began to seek for a deeper meaning in life and often went out of town to a cave in a mountain called Hira to meditate, sometimes for days. There in the cave he heard strange voices which he later claimed to be revelations given by the angel Gabriel. These would later become the ‘holy book’ of Islam, the Qur’an. According to his biographies and Hadith literatures, at first he was quite terrified. Thereafter he received messages over a period of 22 or 23 years until he died.[7]

At first these messages emphasized that there is only one god, Allah, and that all idols must be destroyed. Added were warnings of the coming judgment, the need for right living and the prospect of eternal life in paradise or hell. Both were described in very graphic details and must have made a great impression on his hearers. Initially Muhammad preached with little success. The people of Mecca ridiculed him. In fact, his wife became his first convert. But over the years a couple of hundred other citizens of Mecca followed him. In AD 622 Muhammad, with his followers fled to a town called Yathrib (Later re-named Madina) in an event known as Hijra, and became a war general. From there he conquered and Islamized the entire Arabia.[8]

3. The spread of Islam

One hundred years after Mohammed’s death his followers were masters of an empire greater than Rome at the zenith of her power. They were building mosques in China, in Spain, in Persia, and in Southern India. Two hundred years after the Hijira Mohammed’s name was proclaimed on thousands of minarets from the pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, and from Northern Turkestan to Ceylon. The extent, the rapidity and the method of the early Muslim conquest are a marvelous illustration of their fanatic zeal. [9]

3.1. Three Periods of Conquest

The spread of Islam may be chronologically divided into three periods. Like Christianity, we may say Islam has had its apostolic, medieval and modern missions. The first period is from the death of Mohammed, 632 A. D. to 800 A. D.; a later period, under the Ottomans and Moguls, 1280 A. D. to 1480 A. D.; and lastly the modern spread of Islam, from 1780 A. D. and on, through the Wahabi revival and the Derwish movements in Africa.[10]

4. Sects of Islam

4.1. Sunni

Sunni is the larger of the two major branches of Islam. Sunni Muslims regard their branch as representing mainstream and traditional Islam. Sunnis constitute the majority of Muslims in all nations except Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and perhaps Yemen. In the early 21st century there were more than 1,000,000,000 Sunnis worldwide. Sunnis recognize the first four Caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad, whereas the Shi’ites believe that Muslim leadership properly belonged only to Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali, and his descendants.[11]

4.2. Shi’ite

Shi’ite or Shi’a is the smaller of the two major branches of Islam, the other being the majority Sunnis. Shi’ism is the majority religion in Iran, Iraq, and perhaps Yemen and has followers in Syria, Lebanon, East Africa, India, and Pakistan. In the early 21st century its adherents numbered more than 200 million, or one-tenth of all Islam. In early Islamic history, the Shi’ites were a political faction that supported the power of Ali, a son-in-law of Muhammad and the fourth Caliph. Ali was killed while trying to maintain his authority as caliph, and the Shi’ites gradually developed a religious movement that asserted the legitimate authority of Ali’s lineal descendants, the Alids. In the late 20th century, Shi’ite religious leadership became a major political force in Iran, where it toppled the secularist monarchy of the Shah in 1978–79, and in Lebanon, where it led resistance to Israel during the 1980s and ’90s.[12]

4.3. Sufism

Sufism is a mystic Islamic belief and practice that seeks to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. Sufism consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain divine and human nature and to facilitate the experience of divine love and wisdom in the world. Sufism as an netanized movement arose, in part, as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (661–750). The flowering of Sufi literature, especially mystical love poetry, represents a golden age among the Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu languages. And it was largely through the efforts of Sufi missionaries that Islam was extended into India, Central Asia, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia.[13]

4.4. Salafiyya

Salafiyya is an Islamic reform movement that originated in the late 19th century and aimed at a regeneration of Islam by a return to the tradition of the “pious forefathers” (al-Salaf al-Salih). In most locations the movement was opposed to the process of secularization and Western imperialism, while in some areas (e.g., Egypt) it came to be associated with Arab nationalism.[14]

4.5. Ahmadiyya

Ahmadiyya is relatively a recent sect of Islam founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who was born into a landowning Sunni family at Qadiyan in Gurdaspur district, Punjab, northwest India. Ahmad initiated disciples into his Ahmadiyya movement in 1889, after announcing that messages received in visions designated him the mujaddid (renewer of Islam) for the age. He also claimed to be the Masih-i Mawud (promised Messiah), and the Mahdi (rightly guided one), and to have powers of miracle and prophecy. Most Sunni Muslims deemed such a denial of khatm al-nubuwwa (finality of Muhammad’s prophethood) heretical, but his movement grew to nearly twenty thousand adherents in his lifetime. He was succeeded in 1908 by the first khalifa of the Ahmadiyya movement, Maulawi Nur al-Din.[15]

5. Islamic Legal Schools (Madhhab)

There are four main schools of Sunni Islam, established by Imams Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi`i, Malik ibn Anas and ibn Hanbal.

5.1. Hanafi Legal School

The Hanafi Legal School (madhhab) is one of the four Sunni traditions of Islamic law, and it is considered to be the most widespread. It was named after Abu Hanifa (d. 767), an Iraqi of Persian heritage, who was credited by later generations of legal scholars to be its founder. The school originated in the turbulent southern Iraqi city of Kufa, one of the earliest centers of Islamic learning outside the Arabian Peninsula.[16]

5.2. Shafii Legal School

Of the four main Sunni legal schools, one of the largest and most widespread, after that of the Hanafis, is the Shafii Legal School. It dates to the ninth century and bears the name of its founder, Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafii (767– 820). Among the most famous members of the Shafii School were the scholars and mystics such as Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri (d. 1074), Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi (d. 1083), Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111), and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209). Turkish rulers such as the Seljuks of Iran and Iraq (1038–1194), the Seljuks of Anatolia (1077– 1307), and the Ottomans (1281–1922) favored the Hanafi School, pushing the Shafiis out to the outer limits of Islamdom. As a consequence of this gradual process, the Shafii School now prevails in East Africa, parts of Yemen, South India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Many Shafiis, however, still travel to Egypt to study Shafii law at al-azhar University in Cairo, not far from where Imam al-Shafii is buried.[17]

5.3. Maliki Legal School

The Maliki derives its name from the eighth-century scholar of medina Malik ibn Anas (d. 795). Malik’s text al-Muwatta is one of the foundational legal tomes of the Maliki School. His approach places almost exclusive emphasis upon the Quran, Hadith, and Medinese practice (amal) as sources of Islamic law. Maliki School experienced great success in North and West Africa, where it remains the dominant madhhab to this day.[18]

5.4. Hanbali Legal School

The Hanbali Legal School began in Baghdad during the ninth century. It was the last of the four major Sunni legal schools to appear and was distinguished by its preference for making law based on literal interpretations of the Quran and Hadith. The school was named after Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), the famed Iraqi hadith scholar and theologian. Hanbalis believed that they were defenders of the faith and of God’s law, the sharia. The most famous Hanbali scholar was ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), who wrote copiously on all major areas of medieval Islamic learning and attempted to revive Islam by calling on Muslims to restore the original religion of Muhammad and his companions. It enjoyed a major revival when the Wahhabi movement formed an alliance with the Al Saud of Arabia in the 18th century. Today the Hanbali School is the official form of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Saudi funding and the annual gathering of pilgrims in Mecca for the Hajj have helped make it very influential among conservative Islamic renewal and reform movements in Egypt, Syria, Indonesia, and parts of South Asia. Modified forms of Hanbali law and doctrine have also been embraced by radical Islamic movements in many parts of the world.[19]

6. Islamic Books

Islamic books are several in kind and quantity so that it is not feasible to mention all of them and explain. For time being we will see the two foundational books, namely the Qur’an and Hadith.

6.1. The Qur’an

Qur’an, also spelled Koran (Arabic: “Recitation”), is the sacred scripture of Islam, regarded by Muslims as the infallible Word of God, a perfect transcription of an eternal tablet preserved in heaven and revealed to Muhammad. The intermittent revelations to Muhammad were first memorized by followers and used in ritual prayers. Although verses were later written down during the Muhammad’s lifetime, according to Muslim sources they were first compiled in their present authoritative form during the reign of the third Caliph Othman (d. 656) who burned earlier Qur’anic manuscripts. The Qur’an consists of 114 chapters (Siras) of unequal length. The earliest Siras of the Meccan period are generally shorter and written in dynamic rhymed prose. The Siras of the later Medinan period are longer and more prosaic in style. With the exception of the first Sira the Fetiah (“Opening”), the Siras are arranged roughly according to length, with the longer Siras preceding the shorter ones. Consequently, the present arrangement is partly an inversion of the text’s chronological order.[20]

There is no logical or narrative connection between one chapter and the next, which makes it a challenge for beginners to read without guidance. The Quran’s structure contrasts with that of the first books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament’s Gospels and Book of Acts, which follow a narrative sequence (from creation to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the return from exile in the former, and the ministries of Jesus and his disciples in the latter). Corresponding to beginning with the Fatiha, the Quran ends with two short chapters known as the “protecting” ones (Q 113 and 114), because they ask God’s protection from evil.[21]

Islamic sources indicate that during Muhammad’s lifetime his Companions had both memorized the revelations and written them on palm branches, stone tablets, and the shoulder blades of animals. They also state that there was a pre-Uthmanic version of the Quran in the hands of his predecessor Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), which had been collected out of a concern that the verses would be lost or fnetotten when Muhammad’s Companions died. Abu Bakr’s copy was passed on to Hafsa, one of Muhammad’s widows and daughter of the caliph Umar Ibn al-khattab (r. 634–644). This was probably one of the main copies used in the creation of Uthman’s codex. Nevertheless, evidence from coins, early inscriptions, and texts tells us that there continued to be non-Uthmanic versions of the Quran circulating in the Muslim community after the seventh century. A 10th-century source (Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, d. 929) indicates that there were as many as 28 codices at that time. Moreover, because early Arabic manuscripts of the Quran were often written without vowels and markings to differentiate consonants, variant “readings” of the Uthmanic codex arose in the far-flung lands of the Arab Muslim empire. At the apex of the Abbasid caliphate (10th century), the consensus was that there were seven authorized readings. The standard edition printed today was first published in 1923 in Cairo; it is based on the eighth-century “reading” of Kufa in iraq. The numbering of verses in the Cairo edition has become the standard for most modern printings of the Quran.[22]

The Cairo edition which is known as the Hafs version is widespread and printed by the supervision of Saudi government. Studies show that there are 1354 accepted variant readings between this version and its rival the Warsh version which is being circulated in Algeria, Morocco, parts of Tunisia, West Africa and Sudan.[23]

The Arabic Qur’an which is used in Ethiopia is the Hafs version. Ethiopian Muslim scholars in their 1972 Amharic translation of the Qur’an employed this version of the Arabic Qur’an.

6.2. Hadith

The hadith or Traditions are reports of authoritative sayings and deeds attributed to Muhammad, or to those around him (the Companions), or to respected persons of the following generations (the Successors). Among these three types, the first, the Prophetical hadith, has by far the greatest prestige and probative value. At first the reports were transmitted orally but then, at some point, also with the aid of written texts. As these written texts proliferated, the hadith emerged as a major branch of Arabic literature, of which the two most famous and revered examples (among Sunni Muslims) are the great collections, both called sahih (sound, true), produced in the later third/ninth century by two scholars named al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. In formal terms, a hadith has two main parts: the isnad (support) which lists, in order, the persons who have transmitted the report, usually going back to the time of the Prophet himself; and the matn, the body of the report, usually rather short, often only a few lines or words. The hadith provides the basis for knowledge of the Sunna, the Example of the Prophet, generally agreed to be the second great source for the divine Law, after the Word of God, the Quran itself.[24]

The following are the six canonized Sunni collections of hadith (Arabic ‘sahih sita’):[25]

7.  Global Islamic population

According to Pew Research Center, a prominent US based netanization documenting world’s demographic features, while Islam is currently the world’s second-largest religion (after Christianity), it is the fastest-growing major religion. Indeed, if current demographic trends continue, the number of Muslims is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century. The growth and regional migration of Muslims, combined with the ongoing impact of Islamic extremist groups that commit acts of violence in the name of Islam, have brought Muslims and the Islamic faith to the forefront of the political debate in many countries.[26]

Although many countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, where the religion originated in the seventh century, are heavily Muslim, the region is home to only about 20% of the world’s Muslims. A majority of the Muslims globally (62%) live in the Asia-Pacific region, including large populations in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey.  Indonesia is currently the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, but Pew Research Center projects that India will have that distinction by the year 2050 (while remaining a majority-Hindu country), with more than 300 million Muslims. The Muslim population in Europe also is growing; PRC projected a 10% of all Europeans will be Muslims by 2050.[27]

Countries with the Largest Number of Muslims Living as Minorities[28]

7.1. Why the Global Muslim Population is Growing so Fast?

According to PRC there are two major factors behind the rapid projected growth of Islam, and both involve simple demographics. For one, Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups. Around the world, each Muslim woman has an average of 2.9 children, compared with 2.2 for all other groups combined.

Muslims are also the youngest (median age of 24 years old in 2015) of all major religious groups, seven years younger than the median age of non-Muslims. As a result, alarger share of Muslims already are, or will soon be, at the point in their lives when they begin having children. This, combined with high fertility rates, will fuel Muslim population growth. While it does not change the global population, migration is helping to increase the Muslim population in some regions, including North America and Europe.[29]

8. Global Christian Population

According to Pew Research Center Report of 2015 (the latest info we obtained on the topic), Christians are the largest religious group in the world making up nearly a third (31%) of Earth’s 7.3 billion people. But the report also shows that the number of Christians in what many consider the religion’s heartland, the continent of Europe, is in decline.

Christians had the most births and deaths of any religious group in recent years, according to our demographic models. Between 2010 and 2015, an estimated 223 million babies were born to Christian mothers and roughly 107 million Christians died – a natural increase of 116 million.

But among Christians in Europe the reverse is true: Deaths outnumbered births by nearly 6 million during this brief period. In Germany alone, there were an estimated 1.4 million more Christian deaths than births from 2010 to 2015. This natural decrease in Europe’s aging Christian population was unique compared with Christians in other parts of the world and other religious groups. In fact, Muslims and the unaffiliated in Europe both experienced natural increases in their populations, with new report estimating that there were over 2 million and 1 million more births than deaths, respectively, between 2010 and 2015.

[1] Shabbir Ahmed. Islam: The True History and False Beliefs ;____ ISBN 0-9758851-0-5; pp. 11-12

[2] Ibid. p. 10

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., pp. 11

[5] Ibid., p. 11

[6] REACH  OUT: What every Christian needs  to know about Islam and Muslims; SIM; Revised Edition; 2009; p. 6

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid. pp. 6-7

[9] Samuel M. Zwemer. Islam: A Challenge to Faith: Studies on the Mohammedan Religion and the Needs and Opportunities of the Mohammedan World from the Standpoint of Christian Missions; New York Laymen·S Missionary Movement; 1907; pp. 55-56

[10] Ibid., pp.56-57

[11] Encyclopedia of World Religions; Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.; 2006; p. 1037

[12] Ibid., p. 994

[13] Ibid., p. 1035

[14] Ibid., p. 960

[15] Richard C. Martin;  Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World; Volume 1 A-L; Macmillan Reference USA, 2004; p. 32

[16] Encyclopedia of Islam; by Juan E. Campo; pp. 286-87

[17] Ibid., p. 617

[18] Ibid., p. 455

[19] Ibid., p. 288

[20] Encyclopedia of World Religions; Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.; 2006; p. 899

[21] Encyclopedia of Islam; by Juan E. Campo; pp. 570

[22] Ibid., 573

[23] Samuel Green. The Different Arabic Versions of the Qur’an: https://www.answeringislam.net/Green/seven.htm

[24] Michael Bonner. Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice; Princeton University Press; 2006; p. 46

[25] Bennet Clinton. In Search of Muhammad; 1998, pp. 31-32

[26] http://www.pewresearch.net/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/ Accessed on August 24, 2018

[27] Ibid.

[28] http://www.pewforum.net/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population/ Accessed on August 24, 2018

[29] http://www.pewresearch.net/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/ Accessed on August 24, 2018