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Page 1 of 5 ISLAM AND MUSLIMS
THEOLOGY AND HISTORY
FORWARD
Today in England there are some 2 million Muslims out of a population
of almost 60 million. That is there are more Muslims than Christian
Methodists. These pages trace the history of their Islamic faith and
demonstrate how the English have been very much influenced by the world
Islamic scene for about 1000 years. The section concludes with a look
at the conditions in the Islamic world in the past 50 years as they, at
last obtained freedom, or thought they did, from the shackles of
Western Christian colonialism. Also we look at the simultaneous rise in
Islamic militant fundamentalism which so worries the West and
embarrasses the majority of the Muslims who live in England.
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
The Founder, Mohammed
preaches justice and equality
About 1500 years ago (570-632 AD) a man was born in Mecca in present
day Saudi Arabia who created a "new" religion. His name was Mohammed or
to give him his full Arabic name Mohammed ibn Abdullah. When Mohammed
was about 40, whilst fasting in the desert (a common custom for Arabs
of this period) he claimed to be visited by God in the guise of
Archangel Gabriel. Over the next 20 years he had many of these
visitations, a number in response to specificcover problems he had at
the time. As Mohammed could neither read nor write the Archangel
instructed Mohammed to speak (or preach or recite) about what he had
heard. After his death these recitations were written down as
remembered by his followers and are available for all to read in the
Koran. Mohammed's main message was coincidentally much the same as
Jesus? that is equality and justice for everybody in a world where a
natural human trait seems to be that if you are rich and powerful you
tend to exploit the poor and weak. However Mohammed went further than
Jesus and has provided a detailed list of how a good Muslim should
behave in many day to day situations.
The Koran
The Koran is the "Bible" for Muslims, but being a series of
instructions, actually recitations as they were given to Mohammed, it
is much more difficult for first time students to read than the
Christian Bible which is more like a story book. Further the Koran is
written for Arabic readers and loses most of its literary magic in
translation. Arabic readers claim that much of the Koran is so
beautiful to listen to that it can be compared to listening to the best
poetry or the best music. (This statement might be blasphemous to a
Muslim, as one can't compare even the best music to the word of God.)
Indeed it was not uncommon for an Arab to be immediately converted to
Islam by simply listening to parts of the Koran when spoken in Arabic.
Muslims become the most
powerful block in the world
After the death of Mohammed the Islamic message was spread rapidly
along the Arabic trading routes and created the biggest empire of the
day, from the Atlantic coast of Spain, via North Africa and Arabia,
Iran, India all the way to the spice islands of present day Indonesia
(Java). The tribes of Arabia came under one ruler for the first time.
When some 300 years later they were joined by the nomadic Turks and
then Mongols, they became the most powerful trading block in the world
peaking some 500 years ago when the Mongol/Turkic Ottomans made their
headquarters in Istanbul. The Mediterranean Sea at that time was called
an Islamic lake and was closed to "Western" shipping and trade. Only
the might of the English navy at its peak some 200 years ago finally
broke their stranglehold in the Mediterranean. This Islamic blockade
forced the Christian traders to find another route for the lucrative
spices and silks and there followed the "western" discovery of the
Americas by mistake.
The Islamic world today
Today this vast religious Islamic block is still intact in spite of
efforts by the Christian English and other Christian missionaries to
convert the Muslims in the British Empire to Christianity. (Actually
the number of converts was almost nil). Indeed the barbaric imperial
English trading buccaneers brought back many a story of "superior
cultures" particularly from India. Such messages fell on deaf ears back
home in London. A typical response would be "the man's gone native".
However this Islamic block never followed the English lead with the
Industrial Revolution and has fallen well behind the "West" in economic
wealth. The relationship between religion and science which was
rebalanced in England and the rest of Europe during the Enlightenment
(circa 1750-1850) was never followed in the Islamic block. The result
is that other than the oil rich states, most of this proud old Islamic
territory has third world status. It would be wrong to blame this on
traditional Islam as when the Arab states had their version of the
Enlightenment over 1000 years ago they became the world leaders in
trade, culture and science. On the other hand many modern Islamic
leaders run undemocratic totalitarian regimes which stifle "progress".
It is the concept of moving towards a western democratic, laissez
faire, secular and scientific culture and its associated lack of morals
which many of today's Islamic leaders are vehemently against. Some of
the reasons why may be apparent from this site. There are now some 2
million Muslims living in Britain, mainly immigrants from Pakistan and
Bangladesh plus Islamic Asians fleeing ethnic persecution by Africans
in Uganda and Kenya. Many now live happily amongst secular western
English and many favouring a western or part western way of life. The
aim must be for integration and the elimination of religious extremes
which always results in strife. Perhaps these paragraphs on the Islamic
religion will go some way to minimising common misunderstandings.
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS.
MOHAMMED.
1500 YEARS AGO
Mohammed the creator of Islam, said to be the last of the great
prophets of the single God religions (monotheism, others include
Abraham, Moses and Jesus), was born in present day Saudi Arabia in the
then rich trading town of Mecca. Mohammed himself worked in the trading
and transport field and travelled far and wide within the regular camel
trains of the period. He worked for a female boss some 15 years older
than himself who he eventually married. He was troubled by the barbaric
nature of human life, present even within the confines of wealthy city
of Mecca. (Then a desert oasis).
Mecca was at the cross roads of the major east west caravan routes and
the local merchants became very wealthy. Mohammed's main concern was
that the rich did nothing to help the poor, rather the opposite, they
exploited them for cheap labour. During one of his regular fasting and
thinking trips to remote desert retreats he had a vision that he was
given a message from God by the Archangel Gabriel. Basically he was
told to do something about the human cruelty he saw every day in Mecca.
From that day he tried to persuade the rich that they should trade
ruthless business tactics for compassion and piety and those who were
starving and out of work should be cared for. "On whose authority" the
traders would ask. On the authority of Allah (God) was his reply. This
did not cut any ice with the rich who wanted to increase their wealth,
not share it amongst the poor and on top of all that, who was this
Allah anyway. Up, to this time Arabs were still worshipping Gods like
the Sun or the Moon, the rain Gods and the fertility Gods. Mohammed was
forced to flee Mecca or he would have been assassinated. He went north
to the smaller town of Medina with his wife and family.
Medina (250
miles north of Mecca, originally called Yathrib)
In Medina he met a tribe of Jews for the first time and was relieved to
find another group of people who were dedicated to following a one
almighty and compassionate God rather than the normal series of pagan
gods. During this period he had many visitations from his new Allah
when he prayed for solutions to his many social problems and he found
the instructions he was getting very similar to the rules of life
followed by his new friends the Jews. Mohammed asked if he could join
up with his new friends but the Jews, perhaps out of jealousy or "who
is this new bloke getting direct messages from God?", told him to go
his own way. Thus Islam was born. (Note the similarity with Jesus'
relationship with the Jews). Mohammed was a persuasive preacher and
soon he had a substantial Arabic following. He returned to Mecca with
such a crowd that the Meccans let him back into the city without a drop
of blood being shed. Before Mohammed died he had brought most of the
warring Bedouin tribes of the huge Arabian peninsular under one ruler,
himself. His ticket, based on his instructions from God and his
experience with the Jews was:-
The Basic Theology of Mohammed, ISLAM.
The Koran and the Hadith
The Koran was written some 1500 years ago and the Hadith over the next
200 years. This compares with the older Bible where the New Testament
is about 2000 years old and the Old Testament more than 2500 years old.
Mohammed's message:
- There are not lots
of Gods, one for each
occasion, but one supreme being, "Allah." This puts Islam on a par with
Jews and Christians although Mohammed who could not read or write had
never met or even heard of a Jew or a Christian when he received his
first vision from the Archangel Gabriel.
- Allah is full of
compassion and requires humans to create a just world.
- To help the poor the
rich must always
show compassion and provide 2.5% of their wealth annually to the poor
to help reduce inequalities.
- Muslims (those who
follow the Islamic
faith) should pray to Allah three times a day. It was originally two
but Mohammed put it up to three to be on a par with his Jewish friends.
Mohammed eventually increased it to five. When at prayer Muslims should
face towards Mecca. It was originally Jerusalem a place that Mohammed
never went to other than in a dream whilst praying to Allah. However
when Mohammed split with the Jews, who faced Jerusalem when praying, he
instructed his disciples to face Mecca which was conveniently in the
opposite direction.
- Muslims should fast
for one month every
(Lunar) year. Which is approximately 11 months. The purpose of this
inconvenience is to remind the wealthy of the poor people who have not
got enough food to eat. "Ramadan."
- Muslims once in
their life should travel
to Mecca to get forgiveness for their sins. This pilgrimage is called
the Hajj and takes place every year, two months after Ramadan. At this
time they should particularly remember the story of Ibrahim (Abraham)
and his son Ismail who God told him to kill (sacrifice) as a test of
his faith in God The story is told both in the Bible, the Jewish Torah
as well as the Koran. Muslims trace their direct ancestors back to
Abraham and his line commenced by his son Ismail.
- Muslims should
believe there is a life after death.
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