UI – Part 407 – Basics (some) of Islam

• 7th Century was when it began.
• After Mecca Muhammad became more violent in promoting his ideology.
• First year of Islam was after Muhammad left Mecca (Hijra)(622). He felt persecuted and fled.
• Muhammad was a self-proclaimed Prophet.
• Muhammad, his life, his judgments, his sayings and his warrior nature is central, as the example, to Islam.
• The tenets of Islam are derived from the Quran and Hadiths.
• Hadiths are a reflection of Muhammad, first appearing 200 years after his death.
• The Quran came from Muhammad from revelations he received, he claims, from Allah via an intermediary, Gabriel.
• Illiterate Muhammad memorized verses for the Quran from Gabriel and shared them with close Companions (ardent followers)
• Many Companions died in battle soon after Muhammad’s death never having those verses they kept recorded. The Quran is thus incomplete.
• From the Quran it is Allah’s purpose to “test the faithful and annihilate the infidels” (3:141) and “seek out the enemy relentlessly” (4:104). The phrase “Fight in the cause of God” (4:74) recurs again and again (109 times) almost word for word.
• Allah was the name for Muhammad’s god, not a loving god, unless loved.
• Muhammad first prayed facing Jerusalem, and later insisted all pray facing Mecca.
• Quran written after Muhammad died.  There were many versions with one chosen by 3rd Caliph Uthman.
• Born in 570, Muhammad began his crusade in 610, after a revelation in a cave in Mecca.
• Muhammad died in 632, 22 years after he began his pogrom for a world All for Allah.
• Islam is monotheistic – one god – Allah
• Islam is an ideology, controlling all aspects of life.
• The law of Islam, called Sharia, is as a worldwide Constitution for all Muslims. The objective is that it supersede any other Nation’s Constitution.
• Scripture is the Quran.
• The Example to follow for Muslims is Muhammad.
• Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Yatrib (Medinah) in 620, also year zero (0) of the Islamic calendar. This move referred to as Hijrah.
• Emigration is considered an important part of Islam, its purpose to spread Islam into territories not already Islamic. (Sura 4.100)
• Sunni are the rightly guided, 1st Abu Bakr, chosen by Muhammad to succeed him after his death.  Not of the lineage of Muhammad.  Leaders are most scholarly, Imam’s, chosen.
• Shiite claim rightful heir to Muhammad’s monarchy (over Islam) from Ali who married Muhammad’s daughter Fatima. Leaders (Khomeini) claim to be in bloodline. Leaders are Mullahs.
• The Hadiths are reflections of Muhammad’s decisions, way of life and sayings (Sunnah).
• The first Hadiths appeared 200 years after Muhammad’s death.
• Ansars, those who memorized and remembered, sharing from one to another oral history, provided the data for the Hadiths.
• Ibn Ishaq wrote earliest biography – 200 or so years after Muhammad’s death.
• Sharia Law evolved from the time of Muhammad’s death based upon Scripture, selected Hadiths, the Example of the Prophet and decisions by Islamic leaders, such as the early Caliphs, and subsequent Imam’s, or religious scholars.
• It is permitted for a Muslim to lie (takiyya) if in doing so the goal is to advance Islam.
• To avoid being a critic of Islam with an honest response Muslims apply a method of denial or a tactic of changing the subject or stating unrelated facts, referred to as ‘kitman.’
• A call to behead others is in the Quran.
• Marrying pre-pubescent girls, children, is permitted by the Quran. (65.4)
• After Muhammad’s death his army needed to be fed and utilized, thus Umar, a leading  general in Muhammad’s Tribe (became 2nd Caliph), took these trained and hungry warriors on the road, so to speak, conquering land to the north, west and east of the Arabian Peninsula.
• After Umar’s assassination Uthman (3rd Caliph) continued to raid, plunder and take new territories for Allah.  The Quran spells out the distribution of the spoils of war.
• Freedom is anathema to Islam.  It contradicts the control aspect of this ideology by allowing freedom of choice and moral practices that call for ‘severe chastisement’ in the Quran. Choice is but one – Islam. Thinking otherwise as a Muslim is to be hypocritical.
• A Muslim will be your friend if allowed to do as he wishes, Allah Wills, and proselytize without resistance. If not, there can be no friend, only an enemy to have enmity towards and to be hated until they submit to Islam.
• Control is essential to Islam’s existence. Forms of control include Apostasy Laws, limits on education, keeping women out of the workplace, requiring severe dress codes, even as to personal desires as to hair length, tattoos, nail polish, and co-ed activities.
• In the case of rape, a woman needs 4 male witnesses to prove her case. More often the victim becomes the target of scorn.
• Severe Chastisement ranges from beheadings, stoning (buried in the ground first with only head and shoulders exposed), dismemberment of limbs for thievery, crucifixion, whipping and other forms of punishment.
• Muhammad’s first wife Khadija.  Married 15 years.  Monogamous.  1st convert. Had cousin Warraqah that translated Old Testament into Arabic.
• After Khadija’s death Muhammad married many.
• 3rd wife Aisha was 7.  Daughter of Abu Bakr (1st Caliph).  Consummated when she was 9.
• Born a Muslim, to leave is apostasy subject to punishment (death.)
• For converts to Islam, if they change their mind, there is no going back. Apostasy punishable by death.
• Quran is ordered by length of the books (Suras). However the chronological order is more important to understanding, as anything written post earlier directives takes precedent.  It abrogates the prior.
• Calling Islam a religion of peace refers to wording in the Quran from the earliest times of Islam in the Medinah period, which has been erased, abrogated, by the later directives.
• An oft seen placard, “if you deny Islam is a religion of peace, we will have to kill you,” or “If you continue to call Islam violent, we will have to kill you.”
• The irony inherent is Islam as a religion, as being humane or peaceful, cannot be dismissed.
• It is not a religion of peace.
• The Bismillah, words of Allah as Beneficent and The Merciful begin each of 113 of the 114 Suras. It is absent from Sura 9.
• Chronologically Sura 9, titled The Immunity, is the last of the meaningful books of the Quran and does not have the Bismillah as an intro.  It may be the most violent.  It commands Muslims to act, both offensively and defensively, to insure Islam is viewed as the cause of truth and All the World succumbs to Islam and the overriding controlling political, theological and legal requirements put forth in the essential documents.
• Sura 9.5, referred to as the Verse of the Sword, calls for war against all idolaters. Conversion to Islam is a pathway to safety.  Muslims are to obey this verse to be a viable member of the faith. This is jihad.
• Any persecution perceived by a Muslim is considered an aggressive act against Islam providing justification for jihad (holy war) to eradicate the aggressor.
• When Muslims emigrate into new areas they do so as the Will of Allah.  All territory is for Allah.  Those that object to their presence are considered to be aggressors.
• Towards the aggressors the new arrivals, the Muslims, can now defend themselves and fight for their rights.
• When in a minority Muslims clamor for their rights. When in a majority, minorities have no rights.
• Persecution towards Islam is not limited to overt actions towards a Muslim.  It can be a question, doubts raised, a concern for the history, the example and the text of this ideology, debates that make a Muslim uncomfortable, confrontational, and even promoting a different religion in the presence of a Muslim.  For that, ‘death to the infidel’ is permitted.
• Sura 9.29 makes clear the requirement to “fight those who believe not in Allah…”
• Non-Muslims are to recognize that Muslims are ‘superior.’
• Two most excellent things, 1.) laying down of life in the cause of Truth, Islam being the Religion of Truth per the Quran, and 2.) sharing (proselytizing) the ultimate triumph of Truth.  Die defending the cause of Truth or live and conquer.
• In 18th Century Abdul Wahhab, the religious adviser to the Saud family, led a cause to restore the foundations of Islam rooted in the 7th Century.  His interpretation is referred to as Wahhabism and practiced in full in Saudi Arabia.  It is also the outline for Islam as practiced and called for by the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Boko Haram, al Qaeda, Taliban and other groups considered more militant (political Islamists, radicals, fundamentalists, etc.)
• A moderate Muslim is either ignorant of the ideological requirements of Islam, apathetic or a heretic.  If they study and become more knowledgeable about the ideology of Islam they become candidates for radicalization.
• The Five Pillars of Islam are not outlined in the Quran.  Shahadah is from Hadiths.  The requirement for 5 prayers each day not in Quran.  Praying is.
• The Shahadah is not called for in the Quran, yet Islamic Law requires this statement be made daily.
• Jihad has been referred to by many as an essential 6th Pillar of Islam.
• Modernity is incompatible with the more popular strident form of Islam, Wahhabism, as it allows for freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of religion and tolerance for other belief systems or non-belief.  It tends to be more secular in governance and less theocratic. Modernity, tolerance and freedom allows and encourages people to think for themselves.
• Islam does not permit independent thinking.  All you need know has been put forth by the example Muhammad and in the Quran. All followers, believers, have been provided the answers. Allah’s Will prevails.
• Salvation and the afterlife are important to Muslims.  But the requirement is not faith, but works, that is doing good things that are pleasing to Allah.  The good can outweigh the bad.  The final judge is Allah, with no assurances.
• The good for a Muslim includes fighting, killing, and dying in a war, a fight, a battle to advance Islam. Violence in thus encouraged.
• Life on earth not as rewarding as the afterlife. This is a justification for suicide martyrdom.
• Martyrdom by suicide is not called for in the tenets of Islam.  This was begun and justified by Arafat, a human, a Muslim leader and radical, exasperated in the cause of Islam in the dispute between Palestine (as head of the PLO) and Israel and used this tactic, first, killing US marines in Beirut.  (1983)
• Life on earth is important. “And whoever is blind in this (life), he will be blind in the Hereafter.” (Sura 17.72). Yet Islam’s Imams and Mullahs tend to favor the Afterlife, if not for them for the adherents.
• The Khomeini famously noted “There is no fun in Islam.” It is serious business. As a result there is no hope or joy for a Muslim.
• The Quran has been touted as unspoiled with but one original text of the Scripture. Yet in 1925, the Cairo Quran, was adopted. It is a scholarly review and acceptance of a more unified interpretation. There are however variants that do result in significant differences in meaning which in turn have consequences for Islamic practice, ritual and belief.  The most standardized editions of the Quran in the world today is the one printed in Cairo, Egypt in 1924 (approved in 1918) and after that the King Fahd edition in Saudi Arabia.  Many errors of earlier versions were corrected.  Comparing all Qurans around the world, they are different.
• For Christians Christ is deified.  For Muslims the Quran is deified.
• Christ is an important prophet, but not god. Muhammad is the leading prophet (self-proclaimed) and mortal.
• Quran refers to Jesus (Isa) as Messiah, Good News, Born of a virgin (Mary), Word of God (3.39), spirit from God (4.171)
• In response to a question from Mary as to her virginity as the mother of Jesus, Allah  informed her, “Allah creates what he pleases.” He can do and “Be” as he wishes. (Sura 3.47)
• Islam’s Quran denies Christ was crucified failing to consider the multitude of witnesses to this horrific act, from the Jews at the time, Pontius Pilate, the guards than knew him and confirmed his death when taken down from the cross and those that guarded the tomb.
• Islam claims Covenant of God given to Ishmael, son of Abraham and the maidservant Hagar, whereas the Bible makes clear Isaac given God’s Covenant. Ishmael given God’s Blessing. Isaac son of Abraham and his wife, Sarah.
• God’s Covenant enabled through Isaac’s offspring and lineage the birth of Jesus, the savior.
• Christ told his disciples there would be Counselor to follow ( John 14:16), the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit). Muhammad took that to mean him.
• Muslims claim Muhammad named by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18) as the prophet to follow, ignoring the reference to the source as the from their Brethren (from the Jews).
• Salvation important to Muslims and Christians. In Islam it is earned, by doing and obeying, but never assured. For the Christian salvation is a gift, that of God’s Grace. He made humans right with God, those that have faith in Christ who died for our sins, according to Scripture, was buried and rose from death, according to Scripture. Christ overcame sin (our sin) and death (our spiritual and eternal death) as foretold in Scripture.
• The Muslim Brotherhood is a radical arm of Islam. Affiliates, like C.A.I.R. seek  surreptitiously conversion of Nation’s Constitution to Sharia.
• The Muslim Brotherhood is classified as a ‘terrorist organization,’ including its affiliates, by many Muslim Nations, but not the USA.
• ISIS, al Qaeda, Taliban and the like represent reformed Islam, a return to 7th century foundations, as they rely on the strict interpretation of the Islamic texts and follow the example of the warrior Muhammad.  Wahhabism is the most promoted reformist form of Islam.
• Sharia Law is Islamic Law allowing humans  ( those in control, the Islamic police, the autocrats) to inflect punishment based upon Allah’s Will, i.e. the Quran.  It controls all aspects of one’s life, the spiritual and the temporal (material).
• If there was no Apostasy Law calling for death to those who leave Islam, there would be no Islam.
• Man can carry out the Will of Allah, as written in the Quran. Not so for the God of the Bible. Only God can act upon God’s Will!

Grace and Peace