Humanities 1B
Islam and Islamic Literature
A. Pandey
1. Muhammad ibn Abdullah (c.570-632).
a. Arabia in the late 6th century
i. The Ka‘ba and its rituals
1. Ka‘ba: black cube-shaped shrine in Mecca
2. Haj: annual pilgrimage to worship at Ka‘ba
3. Umrah: rituals associated with Ka‘ba and Haj
b. 570-610 – Muhammad’s early life
c. 610-622 – Revelation to Flight (Hijrah)
i. 610 – Muhammad experiences revelations in the cave during
Ramadan
ii. 612 – Muhammad begins to preach the new religion in Mecca
publicly
1. early converts include his wife, Khadija; his cousin, Ali ibn Abi
Talib; Abu Bakr, a friend of Muhammad; and Uthman ibn Affan,
son of a prominent family.
iii. 622 – Hijrah: Muhammad flees Mecca to Yathrib (later Medina)
d. 624-632 – Intercity wars (Mecca vs. Medina) to the death of Muhammad
2. Islamic literature:
a. The Qur’an, God- given to Muhammad by an angel and “recited” by
Muhammad, later written down by others, the very word of God to Muslims,
their fundamental revelation. It is divided into 114 surahs
i. Order is neither chronological nor thematic
ii. Women:
b. Islamic law, customs, and traditions (oral and written)
i. Shari‘ah: Islamic law, combines Qur’an and Sunna, as well as
Hadith
ii. Hadith: traditions, records of the Sunnah, the custom or practice of
Muhammad
iii. Four books of fiqh or wisdom of the schools of interpretation of
Islamic law
3. Beliefs.
a. Allah, the one and only God, undivided, supreme ruler and judge.
b. Angels and prophets, and above all Muhammad, are messengers of God
c. Allah will judge all souls at the end of time. Afterlife: resurrection, seven levels
of heaven, paradise and al-jannah, hell
d. Various schools of thought and movements interpreted these things in different
ways.
4. The five pillars of Islam constitute its religious practice.
a.
b.
c.
d.
The creed / faith: “ There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet”.
Prayer: both public and private, the heart of worship.
Charity: Giving alms to the poor brethren
Ramadan: Fasting in the month of Ramadan, religious observance that takes
place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar; the month in which the
Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
e. Pilgrimage: Making a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, every Muslim’s wish and
dream.
5. Islam as a system of religious moral law
a. The body of Islamic moral laws is the Sharriah, and the more specific legal principles and
applications are the fiqh.
b. Halal and other rules of daily life
6. Divisions of Islam: Sunni and Shih
a. The major group, about 80% , are the Sunni, those who follow the sunnah or
custom of Muhammad as in the Hadith an Sharia
b. The principal minority is the Shih ( “partisans” of Ali) who took back to Ali’s
son Husayn as martyr at Karbala
c. Other groups are Wahhabis, the Amidiyya, and Babism from which Bahai comes.
7. The Four Caliphs (khalifa = representative)
a. Abu Bakr (632-634)
b. Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-44)
c. Uthman ibn Affan (644-56)
d. Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-57)
i. Second son, Husain ibn Ali, is proclaimed caliph by Shia i-Ali
ii. Ali and Husain opposed by Muawiyyah and his son Yazid
8. Umayyad Dynasty (661-750), beginning with Muawiyyah
9. Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258)
10. Three Persian poets
a. Omar al-Khayyam (1048-c.1125)
b. Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (1207-1273)
c. Hafiz (Shams ad-Din Muhammad, c.1320-c.1391)
11. The Book of One Thousand Nights and a Night
12. The Problem with translations
a. Compare the following with Omar Khayyam #11 (p. 31):
[Close to literal:]
If I were given of the pith of the wheat a loaf,
And of wine a two-maunder jug, of sheep a thigh,
With a little sweetheart seated in a desolate place,
It would be a pleasure not to be attained by any sultan.
[Robert Graves and Omar Ali Shah:]
Should our day's portion be one mancel loaf,
A haunch of mutton and a gourd of wine
Set for us two alone on the wide plain.
No Sultan's bounty could evoke such joy.
b. Compare the following with Hafiz’s V (p. 29)
1. Sweet maid, if thou wouldst charm my sight,
And bid these arms thy neck enfold;
That rosy cheek, that lily hand,
Would give thy poet more delight
Than all Bocara’s vaunted gold,
Than all the gems of Samarkand.
2. So but that Turk of Shiraz take
My heart within her hand of snow
Bokhara, ay, and Samarkand
On her black mole will I bestow.
3. My Shiraz Turk if she but deign
To take my heart into her hand,
I’ll barter for her Hindu mole
Bukhara, yes, and Samarkand.
4. Should that little chit of Shiraz
Bear my heart within her hand,
For her cheek’s swart mole I’d barter
Bukhara and Samarkand.
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5. And if yon Turk of Shiraz land this heart would take to hold in fee,
Bokhara town and Samarkand to that black mole my dower should be.
6. If that unkindly Shiraz Turk would take my heart within her hand,
I’d give Bukhara for the mole upon her cheek, or Samarkand.
Bismillah: “In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful.”
(Transliteration: “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.”)
Shahadah: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad in his messenger.”
(Transliterated: “La ilaha illallah, muhammadur-rasulallah.”)
HAJJ = pilgrimage to Mecca to
worship at the Kaba
Facts about Islam
CALIPH = political and religious
ONE GOD? : Yes - Allah, the merciful
successor to Muhammad
and compassionate
HAJIB = chief attendant to the caliph
THE AFTERLIFE? : A last judgement,
KABA = pre-Islamic temple believed
followed by heaven or hell
to be Gods dwelling place
FOUNDER OR PROPHET? : The
SHIITES = believe that descent from
Prophet Mohammad lived in Arabia
Muhammad is mandate for leadership
571-632
SUNNIS = believe that first 4
SCRIPTURES : The Koran - revealed to
Umayyad caliphs were rightful leaders
Muhammad by Allah through the angel
of Islam
Gabriel
SUNNA = Islamic custom and
PRIESTS? : None
practice
HOLIEST PLACE? : The Ka’ba at
ULEMA = group of scholars that
Mecca in Saudi Arabia
interpret the Quran (Koran)
EMIRS = governors in charge of law,
Islamic Vocabulary
ARAB = ethnic identity
social order, and tax collection
ARABIC = linguistic and cultural
SHARIA = body of social, ritual,
heritage
criminal, political and commercial law
HARAM = Gods shrine
QADIS = Moslem judges
QURAN = sacred revelations made
PURDAH = the seclusion of women
by God through Gabriel to Mohammad
MADRAS = school for the study of
ISLAM = monotheistic religion of
Islam and law
Moslems
SHAYKH = Moslem teacher
MOSLEM = follower of Islam
HADITH = sayings, commands, and
MUHAMMAD = self-ascribed
stories of Muhammad
prophet of God
SUFIS = ascetic Moslems
UMMA = community bound by
Islamic religious faith
Facts a
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QURA
ISLAM
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CALI
HAJIB
KABA
SHIIT
SUNN
SUNN
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