þ7@Öªw?Ö¤å¤å¦å¦å¦å¦å¦å¦å¦å¦å§ë(¨¨DªWªWªW ªwªwªwªw+ Part Three The Islamic Religious System Chapter 5 The Basic Beliefs and Worship Practices of Islam The Five Doctrines of Islamic Faith Laø ilaøha illaø Allaøh. Muhammad rasuøl Allaøh. (ÒThere is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.Ó) This Òtestimony,Ó known in Arabic as shahaøda, is the closest thing to a creed in Islam. It is sufficient simply to utter it once in oneÕs life, freely and as a believer, to become a Muslim. Then all of the other elements of belief and the prescribed duties become immediately incumbent on the one who has testified by means of the shahaøda. The basic doctrines of Islam can be classified under five headings, which are collectively called õømaøn, meaning Òfaith.Ó Faith The first doctrine is faith in the absolute unity of God, which is more than an intellectual assent to a proposition. The technical word for monotheism is tawh.õød, which means Òmaking [God] oneÓ by means of devotion and refusal to compromise on this point. Recall poor Bilaøl under the heavy stone in the hot sun, who nevertheless persevered in tawh.õød by exclaiming ÒOne! One!Ó Another name for Muslims is muwah.h.iduøn, Òunitarians,Ó or more dynamically, Òupholders of the divine unity.Ó God is transcendent, far above all that we can think or say about him. He does not beget, nor is he begotten (Suøra 112). Consequently, a doctrine such as the Christian Trinity is unacceptable and even offensive to Muslim sensibilities, because it suggests shirk, the ÒassociatingÓ of something with God, which is the one unforgivable sin in Islam. Later, in Chapter 8, we shall examine the more formally theological issues connected with God: his being and nature, attributes, and activities, all of which are founded, first, on his oneness. Belief in Angels The second doctrine is the belief in angels and their important work as messengers and helpers of God. Although most of the great angels are good creatures of God, one is evil. That is Iblõøs, or Satan, who was cast out of heaven after he refused GodÕs command to bow down to Adam (QurÕan 7:11Ð18). Iblõøs has a great host of evil followers of angelic origin. The angels, which have no sex, are made of light, whereas humans are created from clay. There are several angels mentioned by name in the QurÕan (for example, Jibrõøl/Gabriel; Mõøkaøl/Michael; as well as Haøruøt and Maøruøt, both fallen angels). In addition to the angels are the supernatural beings, created of fire, known as jinn (sing., jinnõø). These were introduced in Chapter 2 as the invisible beings that possess poets, filling them with special awareness and power in speech. One who is possessed by a jinnõø is rendered majnuøn, Òbejinned,Ó meaning Òinsane.Ó The jinn are much lower than the angels, being in most respects like humans. They have limited life spans, are either male or female, and can be either good or evil. The QurÕan speaks of some of them as having been converted to Islam (72:1Ð19). Generally they are feared by humans, for they are associated with the spooky and uncanny dimensions of life. So, although the stated doctrine is Òbelief in angels,Ó this heading also includes other supernatural beings. Prophets and Scriptures The third belief concerns revealed scriptures and prophetic messengers. Muhammad was the last in a long and noble line of prophets who had been entrusted with bringing scriptures to their peoples. All prophets receive their revelations from God by means of wah.y, Òsuggestion,Ó or Òidea-word inspiration.Ó1 All scriptures are entirely GodÕs work, but peoples before IslamÑthe Jews and the ChristiansÑhad corrupted their original messages to suit their own inclinations. The QurÕan, then, is the purest extant scripture on earth, because it has been preserved from tampering. God sent it as a mercy to humankind, so that they might be brought back to the original, true faith of Abraham. Moses was given the Tawraøt (Torah), David the Zabuør (ÒPsalmsÓ), and Jesus the Injõøl (ÒEvangel,Ó ÒGospelÓ). The QurÕan lists some twenty-five prophets in a line from Adam to Muhammad: Adam, Nuøh (Noah), Idrõøs (Enoch), Ibraøhõøm (Abraham), IsmaøÔõøl (Ishmael), Ishaøq (Isaac), YaÔquøb (Jacob), Daøwuød (David), Sulaimaøn (Solomon), Ayyuøb (Job), Yuøsuf (Joseph), Muøsaø (Moses), Haøruøn (Aaron), Ilyaøs (Elias or Elijah), al-YasaÔ (Elisha), Yuønus (Jonah), Luøt (Lot), Huød, ShuÔayb, Saølih, DhuÕl-kifl (Ezekiel), Zakariyya (Zecharia), Yahya (John), ÔIøsaø (Jesus), and Muhammad. Most of these names are also biblical, although David, Solomon, Adam, Abraham, and several others are not considered by Jews and Christians to be prophets. Huød, ShuÔayb, and Saølih are old Arabian prophets with no clear biblical counterparts. With the exceptions of Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, Zecharia, Jonah, and John the Baptist, none of the usually recognized biblical prophets appears. MuhammadÕs belief in the close association between the prophetic messengers and the books sent down from heaven derives from ancient ideas in the Near East of the relationship between written language and divine revelation.2 Although most of the prophets that the QurÕan itself names are not generally regarded by Jews and Christians as being book bearers, those written prophets who are claimed by both of the earlier Near Eastern monotheisms fit the general pattern that Muhammad and the QurÕan perpetuated. It is not clear to what extent such major Hebrew prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea were known to Muhammad and his Arabian contemporaries. They are not mentioned in the QurÕan, though in certain stylistic respects their books are similar to portions of the QurÕan. But their contents are very different, with the exception of Amos, which emphasizes the divine judgment on a sinful, unfaithful people. In fact, all four books contain judgment and warning passages similar to those in the QurÕan. But in regard to the peculiar qualities of YahwehÕs love and holiness, climaxing the Òsuffering servantÓ passages of Isaiah 53, the views of the QurÕan and the Bible part significantly. The Final Judgment The fourth fundamental Islamic belief is in a final judgment, around which cluster the details of Islamic eschatology, or Òdoctrine of the last things.Ó Many of the specifics of the QurÕanÕs teaching concerning the Last Judgment have parallels and antecedents in other Near Eastern traditions, especially in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. But the QurÕanic system, later greatly elaborated by the theologians, is unique and came to exert its own special influence on medieval eschatological thought and symbolism in non-Muslim regions, particularly Western Christendom (for example, DanteÕs Divine Comedy), but also Asia. The doctrine of a final judgment of humankind is a corollary to the doctrine of tawh.õød, for it reveals the moral nature of God in relation to his creation. These two beliefs should be viewed as closely associated with each other. The judgment is the test of tawh.õød, but the divine unity both precedes and subsists beyond the Òlast things.Ó Those faithful devotees of God and his true religion not only survive but also emphatically triumph on the Judgment Day, because they are included within the divine scheme of salvation and reward. The Sufis, or Islamic mystics, emphasize the ultimate union of the slave with his master, as will be seen and analyzed in some detail in Chapters 10 and 11. The Last Judgment and the QurÕan.ÊÊThe Last Judgment is set forth in many QurÕanic passages as the denouement of the historical process. It is known by such names as Òthe Day of DoomÓ (yaum al-dõøn), Òthe Last DayÓ (al-yaum al-aøkhir), Òthe Day of ResurrectionÓ (yaum al-qiyaøma), Òthe Hour,Ó Òthe Day of DistinguishingÓ (the saved from the damned), and others. The final judgment period descends swiftly, heralded by a peal of thunder, a shout, or a trumpet blast. The natural world is then turned upside down, as depicted in the powerful suøra known as ÒThe Darkening,Ó with its prophetic symbols of the reversal and inversion of the normal world order: When the sun shall be darkened, when the stars shall be thrown down, when the mountains shall be set moving, when the pregnant camels shall be neglected, when the savage beasts shall be mustered, when the seas shall be set boiling, when the souls shall be coupled, when the buried infant shall be asked for what sin she was slain, when the scrolls shall be unrolled, when heaven shall be stripped off, when Hell shall be set blazing, when Paradise shall be brought nigh, then shall a soul know what it has produced. (QurÕan 81:1Ð14) No self-respecting Arab normally would ever leave his pregnant camel alone, particularly in her tenth month (as the Arabic original indicates) when the birthing takes place. The camel was the BedouinÕs most valuable single possession. Yet juxtaposed in the same passage is the practice of female infanticide by live burial (lest blood be spilt and pollution entail). Moving mountains would be an especially frightening phenomenon, because in ancient Arabian cosmology they were thought to be the tent pegs of the firmament. In short, all of the usual natural and economic and social customs and processes will be interrupted and ended on the Last Day. Then all humans, whether long dead or still alive, will be assembled before God the judge. This was a peculiarly unsettling doctrine to the Arabians, who did not normally believe in a bodily resurrection before the coming of Islam. One of the QurÕanÕs mightiest achievements was to change completely this attitude toward one of religious dread of ...
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