Understanding Islam From a Western Perspective (Work in progress)

I've built this colossal post from the ground up took me almost a two years because I think there is no religion that is more misunderstood by the west than Islam; we just can’t seem to understand what makes them tick.
 

and there is a tremendous knee jerk  negative reaction against Islamic communities every time a radicalized fundamentalist group   attacks a western target and one must note this tends to serve their agenda. One must take a pragmatic approach  and one must take into account when trying to analyze Islam and Muslims in general, one must  understand this is not a monolithic group, so one has to be very careful in not to always generalize or oversimplify things because the analysis will be flawed  or it will take you in the wrong direction. When you want to study Islam from the outside literally you have to leave all preconceived notion behind enter with an open mind, this will really help in the investigation. 

 

  Now I do  think, as respectfully possible, that many Muslims have very hard time understanding themselves and their place in the world,  and they are trying to discover and in some case rediscover how their religion fits in modern times,
this is happing to all religious denomination, not only  to Muslims. But in the case of Islam its  suffering an internal cultural conflict amongst themselves,  especial Muslims that have migrated to Europe and other none muslims countries have a hard time in redifining their
religious identities, that is an important aspect in most of their lives. 

This may sound politically incorrect, but sometimes in a multicultural and comparative analysis one must set aside cultural relativism (especially in its most extreme incarnations), because many times it takes your investigation nowhere. This paradigmatically gives you the liberty to ask hard questions; like why does the Muslim World seem so fractured from a western perspective? Why do they have so many pre-national issues that they haven’t resolved? How does their religion play in this situation? Why do they seem so intolerant to other faiths?    
 

Here in Cordoba Argentina where I live, the Islamic world is literally worlds away
even though the name of my city that I live in has a strong relationship with the Muslim world, most people here remain oblivious to this relationship. The thing is we have little contact with people of this faith, Cordoba has a very small Muslim community and they are practically invisible in our everyday life.  I work at an International airport and you see very few passports from any States that has a Muslim majority, except from Turkey that I’ll see every once in a while.

The stunning thing is that this religion that for some constitutes its own civilizational block (Samuel Huntington), that represents something so alien to us,  even though it has so much incoming with the west that it’s astounding. Islam as a religion that is part of the Abrahamist family tree, just like Judaism and Christianity. Another major aspect of Islam that we share with them the influence of greek philosophy by  (Huston Smith 1958). 

The author Huston Smith explains that meaning of the name Islam is primarily is peace, but secondarily its deliverance, the overall meaning is “the peace that comes when one’s life delivered to God” (P 232, Huston Smith; 1958), a more traditional interpretation of the word Islam is the willful or voluntary submission to God.     
     

Mohammed is the man that gave birth to this faith, for a believer I’m actually committing a mistake he’s actually just only a messenger of God, this  man was of Arab ethnicity. Arabs consider themselves as decedents of Sem son of Noah, just like the people of Jewish faith and ethnicity. So both religions considered there people to be Semitic in origin. The origin of the word Arab for some, is the deformation of the Greek word “Arva” (Otero, Origin of the Names of the Countries of the World; 2004) which means horse, this is because the region was and is known for its thoroughbreds. Other meanings to the word make references to being nomads, and in the Arab langue it means “those who speak clearly” or that could be understood. The earliest known use of the word Arab dates back to 853 B.C, in an Assyrian text (Otero, 2004) that mention these people that had been defeated  after a rebellion.  


Aslan presents us in his book about Islam  No god but God (2005) that pre-Islamic era for Islam, is called Jahiliyyah, the time of Ignorance, the time the Arabs were pagans. Allah during Jahiliyyah was a rain or sky deity, gradually evolved into an all powerful and only God that was one and the same God of the Jewish people, but up to Muhammad there was a large tolerance of other deities (they were very new age in their views) , superstition formed part of their daily lives and magical thinking.  Now Fernando Baez in his book The First Book of Humanity explains citing al-Bujari Allah actually has about 99 different names that describe different of its personality.

I always wondered if  the concept  Jahiliyyah  feeds into the disregard that the Islamic  Fundamentalist have to historical monuments that predated the Prophet, since they are from the time of Ignorance or belong to another culture it's Ok to destroy them, like the case of Palmira or the Statues of Buda in Afghanistan, this is just a personal opinion of mine that I haven't confirmed with people that know more on the subject than I, but what do know is that this concept does mask that the Prophet was very influenced by other faiths while he grew in the Holy city of Mecca, it didn't all start with the devine revelations of the Angel Gabriel.

  

Now back tracking to the origins of Islam it fundamental to  understand this point that is very well explainded by the author  Reza Aslan in his  book, No god but God (2005),   explains that Islam didn’t have an insular evolution it was very influenced in its early stages by Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrian beliefs. Zoroastrian preaching established “the existence of Heaven and Hell, the idea of bodily resurrection, the promise  of a universal savior born to a young maiden, and the apocalyptic battle between good and evil”, as one can observe Zoroastrian influence in all three religions. Going back to Islam Aslan explains that this religion and its Prophet where born in a multiethnic and multireligious society, from my point of view Muhammad tried to create the ultimate and definitive religious syntheses, trying to overcome tribal and ethnic boundaries in doing so he make some major doctrinal changes, thanks to divine revelation for those who are believers, creating a new religion.
 

Now going back to the Semitic origins of these two faiths there family tree broke apart at one particular moment in history, at least in Koranic tradition. Abraham got married to Sara, she wasn’t able to get pregnant and give him an heir, so he wed for a second time to a woman named Hagar. She gave birth to a boy that was named Ishmael, but after this Sara also was able to give birth to a boy named Isaac. Now what happened? Sara    made Abraham expel Hagar and her child from the tribe, here is where we can find a major discrepancy with the Bible with what happens next, in Islamic tradition, Hagar and Ishmael ended up living in desolate valley that one day would become the city of Mecca, actual God told Abraham to leave them there. After departing too Palistine Abraham would visit them over the years and give them a  hand founding its first temple. Ishmael’s descendents would become the Arab People, the same people that would convert to Islam centuries latter.

Mohammed was born in 570 A.D., and he belonged to the Quraysh tribe, and he was born into the Banu Hashim clan. Mohammed’s name in Arabic means the praiseworthy.  He had a fundamental roll in uniting the Arab tribes through his political ability especial in the use of his tribal relations, charisma, innovative social views (in the context of that society at that time), capacity in resolving disputes among his pears and his God, and after many years of struggle he actually established the bases for his Muslim State (I will use this term, but it’s by far from what we consider Modern State in our times). Mohammed control over fundamental oasis’s and markets end up giving him the political leverage over other tribal leaders, one must add he wasn’t afraid of the use of force which is legitimated in his doctrine if necessary. You see, as head of State the possibility of the use of force most always remain on the table, especial if you wanted to stay in power during this period of history.
Reza Aslan illustrates a Muhammad that was politically very intelligent, that was pretty much a self made man, claimed in social leader as preacher, his knowledge of tribal politics, the reputation as a fair Judge/ Hakam, which in his society gave a person great prestige, and also used marriage to for political alliances (Aslan 2005).

Quraysh, the tribe that Muhammad belong too, by tradition are considered the purist decent.  They controlled Mecca, monopoly and  access to the Ka’ba and established unjust social order of the city, Muhammad basically when he had his religious awakening and started to preach he clashed head on with Quraysh, it was literally a declaration of war, being exiled from the City.  Muhammad fought a unjust religious establishment just like Jesus did during his time, but Christ was executed and his movement went underground after the fall of the temple while Muhammad was pushed into exile from his city but came back with a army and took over the holy city.

 

Now how did Mohammed become a holy man? Well the answer is through divine revelation over a 26 year periode the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to complete Ala’s message that had been started in the Old and New Testament but wasn’t finished. Mohammed was told that man had to final submit themselves to Gods law. 


Muslims criticize the Old and New Testament because they limit themselves to chronically what happened to previous prophets, and God is more like a secondary character, in the Quran Ala not only take the front seat, he speaks in first person, so we can back track to what we said earlier people of Islamic faith consider this text the literal word of God.The Quran is considered by the people Islam as a third and definitive chapter of the Bible, there for Jewish and Christians have a special place for Muslims, they consider them as “people of the book”. Torah/Old Testament+ Gospel/New Testament+ Quran = Umm al-Kitab/ Mother of all Books, it’s considered by Muslims as a single divine scripture. Now Muslims consider that both Testaments have only  register part of the truth and has some inconsistencies, the Quran is perfect and it’s the unfiltered and uninterrupted word of God. And for the Arab people the word of God was recited to the profit in Arabic there for it’s correct to teach and read it in this langue.Language is a big issue for these people, it one of the fundamental aspects of their cultural identity especially during pre Islamic times, recitation of poems in public places had a very important places for these desert societies, the spoken word and latter the written word was and is something tremendously transcendent for these people. Now the Quran itself was written about 100 years after the prophets death  and that it took time to establish its final form, it's the first book ever writen in Arabic (Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab People; 2003). Something similar happened to the New Testament that was written 80 to 100 years after Jesus’s death. "Now for Muslims the Quran does not reveals God's will, it reveal God himself" (Aslan 2005)

The Author explains that in Islamic tradition Muhammad was illiterate and there for the creation of the Quran is his greatest Miracle, but he explains that this is all true he was a merchant and a business man he must have had some basic reading and writing. Now in comparison with Judaism and Christianity Aslan explains Moses proved himself with magic and Jesus did the same with healing and exorcisms, while Muhammad used langue he proved that the spoken word truly had mystical powers. And the Quran itself not only the foundation of Islam but also the foundation of Arabic in its written form.    

 
Now the people that did this received Mohammed teachings and message where given the name of Muslims and Islam was their religion. His first followers were from the Quraysh tribe, the same tribe that Prophet was from.

Muhammad tried to dismiss tribal and ethnic boarders; he helped the poor and pushed for social reform and economic justice, here is where the concept of Ummah. The Ummah in a way converts the population of Muhammads follers into the new tribe that must respect the social norms proposed by the Prophet, everyone is equal. For Muhammad, your religion is your citizenship. But at the same time he further entrench himself in tribal politics using marriage to forge alliances. 

 
 

Mohamed was a man that despised idolatry and didn’t feel the need to prove himself doing any public displays of miracles, this got in the way of spreading message of Allah, his biggest miracle from his point of view was being able to write the Quran. Mohamed presented himself to the world as a simple messenger to the world, as a figure in Islam tries to take second stage because what is more important to him and his followers is the Quran.

 Speculative theology makes no sense in most of the Muslim world; from my point of view this has a colossal impact a social/political scale that will shape the Islamic world in a way that it will differentiate itself from the west, being that it has the same Judeo/Christian and classic origins.  

Now his message was met with great hostility, so what could cause such a commotion in the Arab world at that time? Absolute monotheism was menace to the politestiest and idolatrous views of the people that lived and travelled to the Mecca to visit the multiple temples that were in the city, peregrinations brought major funds to the land (P 237Huston, Smith 1958), Mohammed’s message started to rock the boat. His moral teachings, preached to end the decadent life style that the people there practiced (P 237Huston, Smith 1958). His social views were a menace to the establishment, he wanted to end social injustice, and He believed that everyone was equal in the eyes of Ala. (P 237, Huston Smith 1958). 

Now the frictions with the people of the book started early in Islamic history when the Jewish population of Medina did not want to convert to Islam, this led Mohammed to expel the Jewish population from the city and years latter from most of Arabia. This break caused for Muslims to look to Mecca as their religious north over Jerusalem. xxxx

Theologically is very similar to Jewish and Christian doctrine, but they seem to see things from a very different angel their strong cultural heritage has a strong influence in their views. So what did Islam change to differentiate themselves from these faiths? To start off they have a very strong opposition to any idolatry and anything that get in the way in the worship of good, which is present in varying levels in Jewish and Christian Faiths, but in this case it so extreme for example; that any representation of Mohamed is prohibited, it gets in the way of the relation of man and God.

Because of this Islam has an Iconoclast view of the world and some times it so extreme that it legitimizes the assassination of people that have drawn caricatures of the Prophet like the resent case of the assassination of 13 people at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, Jyllands-Posten Cartoon incident that lead to attacks on Danish Embassies and interest in the Muslim world or failed attempted against Kurt Westegaard. It’s pretty absurd to kill some over a cartoon drawing no matter how offensive, but for someone with seriously extreme views these violent reactions are totally justified.  
 

They consider that Adam and Jesus are the only humans to be ever created directly by God, there for in the case of Jesus his immaculate conception isn’t in debate like it is between Christian denominations. But the holy trinity and the whole debate of incarnation is just a waste of time for Muslims (Smith1958). Muslims also distinguish themselves from Christians and Jews, because they do not see God as a father figure, it humanizes and Ala, it puts him at our level which is a mistake for them.

Allah is a firm but harsh judge, but as Smith explains in his book there are 192 references to Gods compassion, while there are only 17 references to his anger and his vengeance (Smith, 1958). Another interesting aspect to high light that Smith explains about Ala is that when a person dies they judge themselves, Allah abstains (P 252; Smith). 
 

Islam has a positive view of humanity, man has forgotten there divine origin and this mistake must be corrected, but our nature is a good one which give us the right to dignity. God has given us a gift of life and we must show gratitude, those who do not are ungrateful which translate in Arab as infidel.

Now we are going to talk about Five Pillars of Islam, the author Reza Aslan this how Islam and how this establishes who is a Muslim and who is not. He establishes that they are not oppressive obligations they are task for only those who can perform them. They help the believer involvement in the community, this is the church in Islam, the Ummah confers  meaning and purpose (Aslan 2005).

In other words they are basic directives, and basically a social contract, in how a believer should act and what must they do, that has a strong social impact in how they define their identity. These Pillars are accepted by Sunni and Shia Muslims alike, but in the second case they denominate them as Ancillaries of the Faith and they add 5 more Pillars. But we will stick to the first 5 common Pillars; the first one is there creed that is there vehicle of conversion to Islam the Shahada, leavinf ones ego behind submitting ones will to God. The second pillar is to prey 5 times a day, originally Ala had told Mohamed it was 50 times a day but thanks to the intervention of Mosses and rigorous negotiations it was brought down to 5 (Smith 1958). Praying for Muslims a very important means to show God that a believer is grateful for the life they have been given, and because it tends to unite the community it a strong social integrator. 

The third pillar giving 2.5% of one’s positions to the poor and needy, it’s a primitive form of a Welfare State, some something similar to the 10% that Jewish and Christians have. But in Muslim’s case they generally donate this 2.5% directly to the needy, it’s not used to maintain religious and administrative institutions and it has an pre-establishes who has the priority to receive these donations. 

The Fourth Pillar is the observance of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month in which the Quran was reveled to the Prophet, during this time no one can eat, drink or have sexual activities between sun-up and sun down,for the author Huston Smith fasting is one of the fundamental aspect of a religious life and he establishes a parallelism with the Jewish Holiday, Yom Kippur (Note Muslims used to fast for this Jewish holiday) and in my opinion in a much lesser degree to with Lent, a Christian tradition. The thing is that the author explains the value of fasting is a way to develop self discipline and one values thing differently especially your relation with God. Reza Aslan affirms that’s ritual fasting binds the community, it reminds people what suffering is and what poor people go through (Aslan; No god but God; The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, 2005), and in a way it raises social empathy.

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The Fifth and Final Pillar is the Hajj, the Pilgrimage to Mecca, that each Muslim at least once in their life must make. In Mecca an incredible social phenomena happens rich, poor, people different ethnicities or cultural background get together all dressed the same all the same, eliminating all differences between the faithfull. Now I'm pause a second and present you the very interesting origins of the city of Mecca and the origin of the Ka’ba/Kaaba, pagan Arabs from the pre Islamic era was created by Adam and was destroyed in Noah’s great flood, rebuilt by Noah himself and forgotten till Abraham rediscovered it and rebuilt it, and in Islamic tradition this is place his son Ismail established himself with his mother. The ground around this sanctuary where and are considered to be sacred ground but also neutral zone where fighting amongst the tribes was prohibited. It was a unique universal shrine where many pagan faiths stored their idols.

The first successor to Mohammed was Abu Bakr; was given the title of Caliph. Now he is not considered a new prophet or messenger of God, he can’t add any new revelations to the Koran.  But he and other Caliphs that followed had a very important religious and political authority over there people and religious community. Now like Christianity Islam has a universal projection, and the Profit was able to create an Islamic State so it was natural that the Caliph’s needed to expand do to political and religious motives, as Hourani  explains Islam has no natural limits (Hourani; 2003). Mohammed during his life time already he had formed a State, and received for recognition by sending emissaries to all the surrounding State and Empires that sounded his Islamic State. Going back to the concept of the Islamic State like the one established by ISIS  has no limits and tends to expansion because of the universal political views you could put in the same the Soviet Union/U.S.S.R., where it name didn’t demark a geographical territory, and some could put the United State of America which isn’t a real name but a description leaving the door open to expantion.   

Now back to the Caliph it isn't a hereditary institution  Arabs have a aversion hereditary lineage Aslan explains, the Caliph was chosen through negotiation and consultation among the elders, not elected by the Ummah. Now the Caliph must be obeyed because he had been placed there by the will of God.

Ali’s exclusion from the selection for caliph because he was considered too young, but later he and his wife Fatima (Muhammad’s daughter) was disinherited from Muhammad’s property. For many Ali wasn’t the fourth Caliph he was the first or something else the Imam the proof of God on Earth, establishing a whole new doctrine in Islam so giving birth to the Shi’ah who view themselves as a divinely founded institution that could be only run  by ht e most  pious person in the community, irrespective of his tribe, lineage or ancestor.

Shi’ah believe that the legitimate succession from Muhammad come from his son in law Ali and his grand sons Hasan and Husain and as legitimate successors they are known as   Imams and they represent the spiritual authority of the Prophet while the Caliph  for Sunni’s could be considered as the vice-regent of the Prophet on Earth, Aslan establishes the Iman actually lack political power. The Prophet transmits the message of God Imams translate it for human beings, Adam was the first Imam, Abraham is the Prophet Isaac and Ishmael are the Imams, Moses is the Prophet/Aaron is the Imam, Jesus the Prophet/Peter is the Imam and finally Muhammad the is Prophet/Ali the Imam. The author explains   human being do not have the capacity to attain knowledge of God on their own, the Iman is the mediator. Iman possesses esoteric knowledge that they keep in a secret book and they are the only one that truly know the secret name of God.

Another branch in Muslim community is Sufi Islam, has a strong parallelism with Buddhism, which one of its main objective is to destroy the ego, but in the case Sufism it is to be able to become one with God. Sufism is a mystical tradition that predicate simplicity and poverty are the true form to find God.

 
 

   

Now when the Mohammed passed away, and Abu Bakr took his place as leader of the faithful he started to have issues with the tribal leaders, he didn’t have the charisma of the Prophet, so he depended more on his military might and political coercion, to demonstrate his power, and diving head first into the Islamic expantion. The context in the Mediterranean really gave this expansion a hand the Byzantine Empire was really weak and in a decadent state and the Sassanid Empire was also in decline. There was also a cultural aspect that helped the Islamic expansion that really helped; they spoke Arabic, just like the populations of their first conquest, so this cultural proximity made the transition easier for the locals. 

Do to the dynamic of power the Caliphate moved to Damascus, Syria, there was great need to break away from the tribal dynamic that plagued Mecca and Medina. Syria was a territory that had a reach historical, cultural and strategic importance. It the home land of the Phoenician civilization now in the book of Edgardo Otero he establishes that the Jewish tradition considered these people decedents of Cam, Noah’s expelled son and that over time they became the Canaanites. On the other hand the people that lived in this region before the  Asyran invasion from the north, these inhabitants called there land Aram like the son of Sem establishing their Semitic origin and the name Syria derives from Aram ( there are many explanation to the origin of the name of Syria this is only one of them).     

Now let's dive in one of the most debated concepts in Islam Jihad now Reza explains that it does not translate into war, actually the crusaders coined the phrase of holy war and during this period this concept creped it's way into Islamic doctrine, the thing is the author explains that war in Islamic terms most be fought defensively. Aslan explain that the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1338) is the Muslim equivalent of Saint Augusts, writing about when war was valid to fight and when not and pretty vaguely  defines aggression against Islam,   actually opening the door to the more zealous faithful to take more proactive steps against violations against their faith. 

Author explain how colonialism that had the explicit pretext to civilize these people to justify the occupation of Africa and large parts of Asia by the central European powers. One aspect that  Christianity to these people, Britain had a strong mission agenda in a was auto justifying its moral superiority. But Aslan explains that the Ideals of British enlightenment that contrasted with the repressive nature of their  hard handed imperial policies. But Three major intellectual movements are born in the Islamic world as result of the colonial experiment Modernist (who wanted to adopt European institutions like the rule of law in their countries), Pan-Arabism (for example the Ba’ath political party is spawned out of this movement) and Pan-Islamist ( the Muslim Brotherhood, with Hassan al-Banna as its intellectual father), which gives way due to political persecution into Islamic Radicalism, with Sayyid Qutd at its for front. Aslan explains that Pan Islamism is a reaction (among many social injustices) against Christian missionary activity, but it was more of a social movement not a political party, when it radicalized it became a full blown political actor.

 

Interesting to see the last vestiges of Pan-Arabism as we have in the Bashar al-Assad Regime are battling to survive against Isis which is a horrible offshoot from the Pan-Islamic ideology. 

The ideology of Islamism, is of a political Islam, it calls for the creation of an Islamic State, it’s a social political order defined on Muslim Values, their political view establish that  secular Modernist governments have failed and must be replaced. Author establishes that Islamism is a synonym to Fundamentalism, which is a overly simplified vision of  Islam, overly centered on the Tawhid, heavily fixated on “There is no god but God”,  tremendously reactionary in there action the author establishes the Kharijites, the ones responsible for Ali’s death as the first historic fundamentalist. 

 

Muhammed idn Saud (died in 1765) founded the Saudi regime was the Emir Ad-Diriyyah, who forged a pact Muhammed ibn Abdul-Wahhad who was a radicalized Islamic preacher and scholar, who was basically hellbent in stopping any adulteration of Islam, stripping Islam of what he saw as superstitious innovations and restore Arab purity, setting him crash course with the Shi’ah and Sufi populations living in the Arabian Peninsula.