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Morwen Oronor Profile
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Islam


I'm going to post something that got lost on another site here, and I'll expand on it because I want to learn more.

quote:

Islam is a religion derived from the religion of Abraham. It is monotheistic and its basic belief is that there is only one God, Allah and Muhammed is his messenger. The words of God,, the Koran (Qur’an) was revealed to Muhammed by the archangel Gabeiel and the words and the life of Mohammed (Sunnah) are the sources. Muhammed is not a god or a founder of the religion, he is merely restoring the original faith that was lost through time and the worship of Jesus.
There are five basic tenets to the religion (the pillars):
1. To attest that there is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammed is his prophet.
2. Prayer 5 times a day
3. All things are held in trust for God and therefore charity is part of the faith
4. Ramadan – an annual fasting of one month during which the believer must abstain from from food and drink from sunrise to sunset
5. Hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca the birthplace of Muhammed.



If you would like to read about these five Pillars in more detail:


What are the 5 pillars of Islam

quote:


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Re: Islam

    quote:
    Pastor Rick wrote:

    Isn't number one really two declarations?

    1. There is no god but Allah
    2. Muhammed is his prophet.

    To me the first question I would have is: Is the God Allah the same God which was worshiped by Abraham and what sources are there that either affirm or deny this basic starting point.



The Five Pillars of Islam, if you look on the site I gave you state that the first 'Pillar' is that there is only one God and Muhammed is his prophet. The God referred to as Allah is the same God that Christians call 'God the Father' i.e. the God of Abraham. Abraham had two sons, Isaac, the ancestor of the Jews who was the son of Sarah and Ishmael, the son of Hagar the bondwoman, was the father of the Arab people (source: The Human Search for Meaning) JS Kruger, GJA Lubbe, HC Steyn.
The word 'Islam' is Arabic for 'to submit' and a Muslim is someone who submits to Allah, to obtain salaam peace. To become a Muslim you have to make the declaration of faith which is the text of the First Pillar:

    quote:
    There is no other god except God and Muhammed is his prophet


The Muslims regard Abraham as the father of all people of faith, but the see Jews and Christians as having strayed from God.

 




Wikipedia on Islam

If you'd like to read the discussion with Pastor Rick and Lesigner Girl on this subject:

, click here.


2/16/2009, 1:24 am Link to this post Send PM to Morwen Oronor Blog
 
Tim Callahan Profile
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Re: Islam


Much of the initial success in the spread of Islam had to do twith the simplicity of that faith. It lacked the paradoxes and conundrums of Christainity, such as Jesus being both divine and human, and the Trinity consisting of three persons who constitute one God.

Not only are the demands on the Muslim worshiper simple, they are - or at least were initially - flexible. Of the five pillars of Islam. two may well be once in a lifetime obligations. These are the recitation of the formula that there is no god but God, and Muhammad is his messenger, and the hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca.

The confession of faith may only be required once, but if it is demanded on other occasions it's hardly an onerous chore. The hajj can be a bit demanding, particularly on one's finances, but Muslims are forbidden to go into debt to perform it. One who has perfomed this pilgrimage is entitled to be addressed by the honorific "Hajji" preceding his name, indicating that many do not perform this act.

Prayer five times a day might be difficult to perform, prarticularly if one is in battle or working in either a factory or modern office setting, but if one cannot perform the prayer, that person is instructed to perform an act of charity instead.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan (which was a holy month in Arabia well before Muhammad invented Islam) is only during the day and can be followed by a feast at night. One isn' supposed to even drink water from dawn to dusk, but if one must fo medical reasons, or because of age or nfirmity, one can again compensate by perfoming good works.

Charity is definitely an obligation and is demanding enough to make a difference; but, as can be seen from the link Morwen provided, one isn't expected to impoverish oneself in the process.

Islam was also spread by military conqest, of course, though Muslims did not coerce subject peoples to convert to Islam, particularly if they were "People of the Book" (Jews, Christians, Mandaeans and, to soome degree, Zoroastrians).

Contingency also played a role in the expansion of Islam. Two empires, The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, and the Sassanid Persian, bordered Arabia. Just prior to the expansion of Islam out of Arabia, these two empires were embroiled in a 20 year war, which militarily exhausted both of them. Thus, when the Muslim armies erupted out of the Arabian penninsula, they were both virtually defenseless. The Persian Empire was conquered, and the Muslims took Syria, the Levant, Egypt, Libya and Tunesia from the Byzantines.

It is interesting to speculate what the world would be like today had these two empires - which had been coexisting not amicably, but only with intermittent minor wars - had refrained from their 20 year knock down. It is quite possible that Islam would have been contained in the Arabian penninsula.
2/16/2009, 1:37 pm Link to this post Send Email to Tim Callahan   Send PM to Tim Callahan
 
Morwen Oronor Profile
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Re: Islam


And of course if Christianity hadn't attacked it the way it did with the Crusades.
This subject is another one that I have in my reading list (I have too many irons in too many fires). I'm rather interested in the People of the Old Testament right now. As soon as I've done with that, I'll get back to the one on Islam.
 emoticon
Not enough hours in the day for all my projects and it doesn't help that I fall asleep when I read.
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2/16/2009, 3:24 pm Link to this post Send PM to Morwen Oronor Blog
 
Tim Callahan Profile
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Re: Islam


Looking over this old thread recently, I was struck by another aspect of contingency in the history of religion and its varied effects on Christianity - specifically western Christianity (i.e. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism) - and Islam. The early Christian church was divided into four bishoprics, all of which had equal power. These were Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria. When the Roman Empire split in two, the only one of these in the west was Rome. Constantinople, as the capitol o the Eastern Roman Empire, exerted seniority over Antioch and Alexandria.

With the rise of Islam, Antioch and Alexandria were lost to the Muslims. Constantinople thrived, while the Western Roman Empire fell, leaving the Pope (the Bishop of Rome) without a protector, but also without a master. Thus, independent ecclesiastical power was born. When the Pope finally found a protector in the person first of Pippin the Short, then his son Charlemagne (or Carolus Magnus or "Charles the Great"), he was able to first to give his blessing to Pippin deposing the last Merovingian king, then was able to crown Charlemagne emperor. Thus, through accidents of history and geography western and central Europe gained a two track power structure, effectively separating ecclesiastical and temporal power.

The never happened in Eastern Christianity and it certainly never happened in Islam. This separation of powers eventually made it possible for Europe, originally a comparable backwater, to pull ahead of the Islamic powers, particularly in the field of technology. This eventually resulted in the Christian victories at Lepanto and Zenta, and finally resulted in Europe dominating the Muslim world.
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Kaunisto Profile
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Re: Islam


quote:

When the Pope finally found a protector in the person first of Pippin the Short, then his son Charlemagne (or Carolus Magnus or "Charles the Great"), he was able to first to give his blessing to Pippin deposing the last Merovingian king, then was able to crown Charlemagne emperor.

That fits logically to Da Vinci Code emoticon

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