9781422281123

T HE M ONOTHEISTIC F AITHS J UDAISM , C HRISTIANITY , AND I SLAM

Israa Aman

Mason Crest Philadelphia

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com ©2017 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America. CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #UI2016. For further information, contact Mason Crest at 1-866-MCP-Book. First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

on file at the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-1-4222-3674-1 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-4222-8112-3 (ebook)

Understanding Islam series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3670-3

Table of Contents

I NTRODUCTION ............................................................5 D R . Camille Pecastaing, Ph.D. 1. F ATHER OF T HREE F AITHS ........................................9 2. S HARED A NCESTORS ................................................17 3. O RIGINS OF J UDAISM ..............................................29 4. T HE B IRTH OF C HRISTIANITY ..................................45 5. T HE E MERGENCE OF I SLAM ....................................63 6. A L EGACY OF O PPRESSION ......................................83 7. M ISTRUST AND V IOLENCE ........................................97 C HRONOLOGY ..........................................................108 S ERIES G LOSSARY ....................................................112 F URTHER R EADING ....................................................113 I NTERNET R ESOURCES ..............................................114 I NDEX ......................................................................115 P ICTURE C REDITS ......................................................119 C ONTRIBUTORS ........................................................120

Islam: Core Beliefs and Practices Ideas & Daily Life in the MuslimWorld Today Islamism & Fundamentalism in the Modern World The Monotheistic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Muslim Heroes and Holy Places Muslims in America An Overview: Who are the Muslims? The Struggle for Identity: Islam and the West

Introduction by Camille Pecastaing, Ph.D.

I slam needs no introduction. Everyone around the world old enough is likely to have a formed opinion of Islam and Muslims. The cause of this wide recognition is, sadly, the recur- rent eruptions of violence that have marred the recent—and not so recent—history of the Muslim world. A violence that has also selectively followed Muslim immigrants to foreign lands, and placed Islam at the front and center of global issues. Notoriety is why Islam needs no simple introduction, but far more than that. Islam needs a correction, an exposition, a full dis- cussion of its origins, its principles, its history, and of course of what it means to the 1.5 to 2 billion contemporaries associated with it, whether by origins, tradition, practice or belief. The challenge is that Islam has a long history, spread over fourteen centuries. Its principles have been contested from the beginning, the religion has known schism after schism, and politi- co-theological issues instructed all sorts of violent conflict. The history of Islam is epic, leaving Islam today as a mosaic of diverse sects and practices: Sunnism, Shi’ism, Sufism, Salafism, Wahhabism, and of course, Jihadism. The familiarity of those terms often masks ignorance of the distinctions between them.

5

6 T HE M ONOTHEISTIC F AITHS : J UDAISM , C HRISTIANITY , AND I SLAM

Islam is many things to many people, and while violent radi- cals occupy the headlines, what a Muslim is in the 21st century is practically indefinable. Islam is present on every continent; the religion of billionaires and of the poorest people in the world, the religion of kings and revolutionaries, of illiterate pastoralists and nuclear scientists, of fundamentalist theologians and avant-garde artists. Arabic is the language of Islam, the language of the Qur’an, but most Muslims only speak other tongues. Many Muslims indulge in moderate consumption of alcohol without feeling that they have renounced their faith. Boiled down to its simplest expression, being Muslim in the 21st century is an appre- ciation for one’s origins and a reluctance to eat pork. It is not only non-Muslims who have a partial view of Islam. Muslims, too, have a point of view limited by their own experi- ence. This tunnel vision is often blamed for the radicalization that takes place at the margins of Islam. It is because they do not fully apprehend the diversity and complexity of their faith that some follow the extremist views of preachers of doom and violence. Among those, many are converts, or secularized Muslims who knew and cared little about religion until they embraced radical- ism. Conversely, the foundation of deradicalization programs is education: teaching former militants about the complexity of the Islamic tradition, in particular the respect for the law and toler- ance of diversity that Prophet Muhammad showed when he was the ruler of Medinah. Islam in the 21st century is a political religion. There are four Islamic republics, and other states that have made Islam their offi- cial religion, bringing Islamic law (Shari’a) in varying degrees into their legal systems. Wherever multiparty elections are held, from Morocco to Indonesia, there are parties representing political Islam. Some blame Islam’s political claims for the relative decline of the Muslim world. Once a center of wealth and power and knowledge, it now lags behind its European and East Asian neigh- bors, still struggling to transition from a rural, agrarian way of life to the urban, now post-industrial age. But for others, only Islam

I NTRODUCTION

7

will deliver a successful and indigenous modernization. Islam is also an economic actor. Shari’a instructs the practices of what is known as Islamic finance, a sector of the international financial system that oversees two trillion dollars worth of assets. For decades now, Islamist organizations have palliated the defi- ciencies of regional states in the provision of social services, from education to healthcare, counseling, emergency relief, and assis- tance to find employment. It is the reach of Islamist grassroots net- works that has insured the recent electoral success of Islamic par- ties. Where the Arab Spring brought liberalization and democrati- zation, Islam was given more space in society, not less. It should be clear to all by now that modernity, and post- modernity, is not absolute convergence toward a single model— call it the Western, secular, democratic model. Islam is not a lega- cy from a backward past that refuses to die, it is also a claim to shape the future in a new way. Post-communist China is making a similar claim, and there may be others to come, although today none is as forcefully and sometimes as brutally articulated as Islam’s. That only would justify the urgency to learn about Islam, deconstruct simplistic stereotypes and educate oneself to the diver- sity of the world.

1

Father of Three Faiths

T he knife glittered as Abraham, following the patterns of ancient ritual, prepared to make a sacrifice to his God. However, the creature lying bound on the altar before Abraham was no ordinary bull or sheep, such as might have been sac- rificed as a burnt offering to one of the many pagan deities worshiped in the region known as the Fertile Crescent approximately 4,000 years ago. Abraham was spiritually different from the other people of his polytheistic culture; as a young man he had decided to obey a sin- gle God. Now, God had told Abraham to go into the mountains and sacrifice his young son. It seems impossible that as Abraham raised the knife, he did not feel anxious at what he was about to do. Yet the sources that describe the events of Abraham’s life indicate that he was fully prepared to submit to the demands of his deity without question—even if that meant killing his own child. This willingness to obey pleased God, who sent a messenger to stop Abraham before he could swing the knife downward. The

Opposite: A painting by Rembrandt shows an angel intervening to stop Abraham from sacrificing his son. Muslims, Christians, and Jews revere Abraham as the first monotheist.

9

10 T HE M ONOTHEISTIC F AITHS : J UDAISM , C HRISTIANITY , AND I SLAM

request for sacrifice had been a test of Abraham’s faith, one that he had passed. “Because you have done this and not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descen- dants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore,” God promised Abraham. “Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your off- spring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22: 16–18). Abraham is generally considered the first monotheist —a per- son who worships only one deity. The idea of a single, all-power- ful God was a revolutionary concept that would change the world, ultimately spawning three important faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Today the spiritual descendants of Abraham make up more than half of the world’s population. Pre-Monotheistic Religious Thought No one can say exactly how or when religious thought first devel- oped. The Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures (the Torah, Bible, and Qur’an, respectively) agree that religious thought dates to the creation of the world, because Adam and Eve, the first man and

animism— a primitive religion in which all things in nature are believed to have conscious spirits, and a supernatural force is believed to animate the universe. henotheist— one who worships a single God but does not deny the possible existence of other gods. monotheist— one who believes in the existence of a single, all-powerful God. polytheistic— relating to belief in, or worship of, multiple gods. scripture— a body of writings considered sacred or authoritative by adherents of a particular reli- gion. theology— the study of religious faith, practice, and experience, especially the study of God and God’s relationship to the universe. Words to Understand in This Chapter

F ATHER OF T HREE F AITHS

11

This building, called a ziggurat, is located in Ur, once the most important city in Mesopotamia. Ziggurats were tem- ples where the ancient Sumerians worshiped their gods; some scholars believe the ziggurat of Ur was dedicated to the moon god. This ziggurat was built around 2100 BCE and therefore may have been seen by Abraham, who is believed to have spent the early years of his life in Ur.

woman in these scriptural traditions, communicated with God. Modern scientists have different ideas about how the earliest religious thought may have developed among prehistoric humans during the Stone Age, a period that stretches back as far as 2 million years. Although it is impossible to know for certain how Stone Age humans lived and what they believed, there are generally accepted theories of behavior. Agriculture had not yet been developed, so humans had to hunt animals or gather wild fruits or grains. Humans spent all of their time trying to survive, so there was no time to develop the elements of civilization, such as written lan- guage or technology more advanced than simple tools made from stone or wood. Because people were constantly on the move, look- ing for new food sources or following wild animals, there were no cities or permanent settlements.

12 T HE M ONOTHEISTIC F AITHS : J UDAISM , C HRISTIANITY , AND I SLAM

Like modern humans, people of the Stone Age understood the relationship between cause and effect. They knew, for example, that touching fire would cause a painful burn, or that eating the leaves of a particular plant would make them sick. However, there were many things prehistoric humans could not understand. What caused the sun to rise every morning and disappear each night? Why did thunder and lightning sometimes cause the forest to shake? To answer these types of questions, Stone Age people used their imaginations. They created stories to explain the forces of nature that they could not understand. It is a short step from asking, “why does this happen?” to wondering “who or what caused this to happen?” People of the Stone Age came to believe that there were vital living forces, or spirits, everywhere in nature. People had spirits, which could be glimpsed when they saw their shimmering reflection in a pool of water. Trees, animals, rocks, rivers, and stars all had spirits. Good spirits caused dreams, and evil spirits brought illness. Angry spir- its could express themselves through floods or storms. Humans wanted to keep the spirits happy so they would pro- tect the people. To do this, humans began to develop rituals intended to satisfy the spirits. Anthropologists consider the prim- itive myths about spirits, and the rituals created to appease them, to be the earliest expressions of religious thought. This type of reli- gion is known as animism , and it is still practiced by people in some parts of Africa, South America, and Asia. Human existence changed radically with the development of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. When humans learned to grow crops and raise domesticated livestock, they were able to control their food supply for the first time. This enabled them to settle in permanent communities. As farming became more effi- cient, it resulted in food surpluses, which in turn meant humans could devote more of their time to other pursuits, such as weaving cloth, making pottery, or working metal. As people living in these communities shared their knowledge and skills, the earliest civi- lizations began to develop.

F ATHER OF T HREE F AITHS

13

The land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers is considered the site of the earliest civilization, Sumer. This area, later called Mesopotamia, is located in present-day Iraq. Great civilizations had already risen and fallen in this region by the time the patriarch Abraham was born here around the year 2000 BCE . And other early civilizations had emerged between 9,000 and 7,500 years ago along the Nile River in Africa, in the Indus Valley in central Asia, and along the Yellow River in China. Successful farming required rain for crops, fertile soil, good weather, and fresh water and grasses for livestock. If an unforeseen event—a river flood, a blight, an unexpected hailstorm—damaged the crops, many people would starve. Therefore appeasing the spirits—now called gods—became even more important. At one time a simple sacrifice might have sufficed. For example, a farmer whose field was threatened by a rising river might throw handfuls An ancient Egyptian temple. Some historians argue that an Egyptian pharaoh named Amenhotep IV (or Akhenaten), not the biblical patriarch Abraham, was the first true monotheist because while Abraham worshiped a single God, it is not clear that he denied the existence of other gods. Amenhotep, who ruled from 1375 to 1358 BCE , insisted that Egyptians worship only Ra, the sun god, and oversaw the destruction of temples to the other Egyptian deities. After his death, however, Egypt reverted to polytheism.

14 T HE M ONOTHEISTIC F AITHS : J UDAISM , C HRISTIANITY , AND I SLAM

of grain into the waters to appease the river god. Eventually, though, humans developed sophisticated religious systems in which rituals and sacrifices were performed at certain times each year to ensure the fertility of crops. A class of priests was created to intercede with the gods and direct worship. Humans worshiped many gods, whose names and the rituals required to please them varied greatly from place to place. People of these ancient cultures often worshiped gods that represented the sun, moon, or forces of nature. Major Sumerian gods—those the patriarch Abraham might have been familiar with, for example— included An, the god of the heavens; Ki, goddess of the earth; and their son Enlil, the god of air and storms. Egyptians generally wor- shiped Ra, the sun god, as creator of the universe, although some Egyptian traditions gave other gods the credit for creation. The Importance of Monotheism Abraham may have been a henotheist , rather than a true monotheist, as he is never said to have claimed there were no other gods. By tradition, however, he is considered the first human being to place himself completely in the hands of the one God. Because each of the gods worshiped by polytheists had separate and specific areas over which they had power, no single god could have the primary place in a person’s life. Abraham, however, focused on the commands of a single deity, rather than on trying to appease all of the gods through various rituals. By doing this, Abraham placed the one supreme God at the center of his life. Monotheism was a revolutionary idea because it radically changed the human perspective of the future. In the ancient world life and death were considered simply part of an endless cycle. Although the gods could intervene in human affairs, even the great- est of them were controlled by outside laws and forces. In the epic poem The Iliad , for example, Zeus is the greatest god of the Greek pantheon, but he cannot keep his mortal son Sarpedon from dying in battle because the Fates have decreed Sarpedon’s death. Ancient