Third trimester, school year 2020-2021

MAJOR MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD: ISLAM

 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
o THE BACKGROUND OF ISLAM
 Islam emerged in Arabia, specifically in the city of Mecca, in the seventh century C.E. A peninsula that had some
fertile land on the coasts and some scattered oases of excellent agriculture, Arabia also had vast stretches of barren
hills and valleys and an immense area of desert sands. There were some well-established cities, such as Mecca, but
the inhabitants of the open spaces were the Bedouin, who moved their tents and flocks as necessary to find food and
water. In both situations, the key organization was the tribe, and within the tribe, the clan. The tribal identities
superseded any loyalty to geographic area or city. Survival depended of the tribe. An isolated individual or even
family had little chance of survival in a natural and human environment that was usually hostile.
 Economically, there was some interdependence among the desert tribes and city tribes. The Bedouin were largely
independent, but they could trade their sheep, goat and camel wool to people of oases for products of their trees and
fields.
 Farmers could gain through trading dates and wheat for the wool used in making clothes, carpets and tapestries.
Then there were peoples such as the Meccans, who produced little but made a business of buying and selling
providing markets where the various tribes could come together and exchange goods. Mecca also had individuals
who could organize large caravans and trade with other population centers, among which were Damascus, Syria;
South Arabia and Ethiopia. Although poor in natural resources themselves, the Meccans managed to maintain a
level of commercial activity that brought them economic and political interdependence.
 The Meccans had something even more important than oases had. The famous Ka’bah was located there. The cubic
building possessed the Black Stone in its southeast corner, which was a symbol of divine power. The building
contained some 360 idols, many of them representing forces of nature and celestial beings. Every Arab tribe could
find its deities there, and religious pilgrimages could be combined with caravans organized for trade within the city
limits. Mecca also had an established tradition of truce for pilgrimages during part of the year, tribes that normally at
war with each other could enter of safety and carry on trade for a period of time without being in constant fear of a
surprise raid on their persons and possessions.
 The keepers of Ka’bah were members of the Quraysh tribe. They had considerable status among Arabs due to their
stewardship of this most sacred precinct. It is obvious that they also had considerable economic advantage from the
pilgrims and traders who came to their city to conduct religious rituals and business activities. They were also aware
that theirs was not a monopoly, for there were other centers where goods could be exchanged. So Quraysh were
always alert to anyone or anything that could undermine their social position or livelihood.
o THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD
 The child Muhammad, born to powerful but impoverished clan, was not inherit wealth. His father, Abdullah, died in
Yathrib before Muhammad was born to Aminah, his mother. Any inheritance Abdullah might have received would
have passed to brothers, not to his son. Pious Muslims tell stories of the holy birth of Muhammad. God willed his
truth to a fixed abode, transferring the Purified to Aminah. She had become pregnant with one of the Lights of
Essence. All nature informed the Quraysh of his being expected. At his birth many strange and miraculous signs
proclaimed heaven’s triumph over satanic spirits.
 Following the custom of the time, Muhammad was sent to the country to live with a wet nurse and her family until
he was six years old. Because Halimah, a member of the tribe of Banu-Asad, was married to a shepherd,
Muhammad enjoyed his earliest childhood roaming the countryside with this family that spent most of its days
looking for sustenance for themselves and their flocks. After Halimah returned Muhammad to his mother, she took
on a journey to see her family in Yathrib, the city where his father had died on a trading mission when he was only
twenty-five years old. Unfortunately, his mother did not survive the return journey , and Muhammad was an orphan
when he reached Mecca again. Now he was entirely dependent on his grandfather and, after his grandfather’s death
on his uncle Abu Talib.
 The time between Muhammad’s birth 570 CE and his marriage to Khadijah at the age of twenty-five is only
sketched outline, except for some stories circulated by some of the pious that are by no means accepted by the
majority of Muslims. At some point, Muhammad had accepted employment from that well-to-do widow Khadijah
and had led some caravans for her. The marriage was successful; Muhammad did not have another wife as long as
 Khadijah lived. In the twenty five years they lived together, they had at least two sons, who died in infancy, and four
daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayyag, Um-Khulthum, and Fatima, all of them except Fatima dying before their father.
Khadijah was a counselor and in religious meditation. Always a moral person, he sought now to deepen his spiritual
life. He sometimes wandered outside the city to meditate among the hills.
 Muhammad’s spiritual quest led to results that were absolutely startling for him. While he was meditating in a cave
on Mt. Hira about 610, the angel Gabriel confronted him and delivered a message from Allah (Arabic for “the
God”). Gabriel challenged Muhammad to read or recite the message of God.
 In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
 Recite: In the Name of thy Lord who created, created Man of a blood-clot
 Recite: And thy Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the Pen, taught Man that he
knew not.
 Far from ecstatic, Muhammad was anxious as he described his experience to Khadijah. Was he becoming
possessed? Khadijah consulted hanif (worshipper of one God), Waraq Ibn Nawfal, who had become a Christian;
he assured her the experience of Muhammad was in line with the experience of other prophets recognized by Jews
and Christian. He was not possessed by jinn(In Arabia, a race of beings created from fire, distinguished from
humans who were created from clay. Some jinn are good; others are bad.)
 Once Muhammad was sure God was really speaking through him, he did his duty and recited the messages exactly
as he received them. That took exceptional courage, for the message God gave him to recite was one of social and
religious requirement of all idols of the Arabs be destroyed. Muhammad was to recite these words of God to the
people of Mecca, including the tribe of Quraysh. There was not much resistance to the message that all idols had to
be to the idea that Muhammad was a prophet; there was, however, much resistance to the idea that all idols had to be
destroyed. The Quraysh did not take long to see that following message could jeopardize their traditional means of
livelihood. They could not very well assail God, but they could ridicule Muhammad so that no one socially
acceptable to the Meccans would take him seriously, let alone identify with his beliefs. A tradition reporting that
Muhammad received certain “satanic verses” is regarded by many Muslims as untrue. The account states that two
verses he received, permitting Arabs to worship three traditional goddesses, were rejected as inspired by “satan”.
Sura 53 of the Qur’an now describes these goddesses as only imaginary, deserving no worship.
 The first converts came from his own household. Besides Khadijah and Muhammad’s cousin Ali, son of Abu Talib,
Zayd Ibn Horithah, his adopted son, accepted him. The first convert outside his household was Abu Bakr, who
although a little younger than Muhammad, was a man of some wealth and influence in Mecca. Two other converts,
Khalid Ibn Said and Utman Ibn Affan, came from the rival branch of the Quraysh, the Ummayads. These first
converts were to figure significantly in the development of the organization of the new religion. Eventually
Muhammad gave daughters in marriage to Ali and Uthman. After the death of Khadijah, Muhammad married Abu
Bakr’s daughter Aishah. Early Islam was maintained with strong family ties.
 Other converts came slowly from ranks of young people and slaves. Tremendous pressure was placed on the
converts to renounce their new faith and return to traditional polytheism. Yet persisted and were even successful in
making converts of some of the persecutors, for example, ‘Umar. Eventually, several Muslim families had to
emigrate to Ethiopia to seek safety; even there the enemies of Muhammad sought their deportation. To bring further
pressure, leaders of the Quraysh placed a boycott on the house of Hashim, Muhammad’s clan. Abu Talib did not
give in to their threats, nor did he ask Muhammad to compromise the message of God. With the deaths of Abu Talib
and Khadijah within a period of a year. Muhammad became even more desolate.
 In the year of 620 , Muhammad had contact with representatives of Yathrib who were seeking someone to arbitrate
conflicts there and serve as an impartial leader. Muhammad accepted the challenge on condition the Medinans
embrace Islam. Some of them returned and agreed to practice rigid monotheism. Muhammad sent a teacher with
them when they returned in Yathrib and helped them prepare a body of Muslims in their own city. Later, Muhamad
chose twelve leaders from the Khazraj and the Aws, tribes of Yathrib, and set them apart to become leaders of his
religious community in Yathrib. Muhammad counseled his adherents in Mecca to get their affairs in order to leave
the city to make a new life in Yathrib. Muhammad ‘s enemies in Mecca looked on his development as a new threat.
They wanted him and his converts where they could keep an eye on them and, if possible control them.
 Forty men, representing several different clans in Mecca, Excluded the house of Hashim from a secret meeting
called to discuss the fate of Muhammad. Because the forty would act as one person to kill Muhammad, the
Hashimites could not afford to attack all the various clans in blood revenge. The forty men guarded Abu Bakr’s
house, where Muhammad was supposed to be staying. However, Ali took the place of the Prophet in bed, and
 Muhammad and Abu Bakr slipped out of the city and hid in a cave to the south of Mecca. The enemies conducted a
rigorous search, but eventually Muhammad and Abu Bakr escaped and made their way north to Yathrib. ‘Ali
escaped as well. Yathrib became the new home of the Prophet. The Hijrah, the migration was in 622, which became
the beginning of year of the Muslim calendar.
 Muhammad’s move to Yathrib added a new dimension to the story of Islam. Until that point, the life of the prophet
was parallel to the calling of several different leaders of world religions, including Jesus and Gautama. But
Muhammad had to add, almost at once, an administrative element to his leadership without diminishing at all his
spiritual leadership; indeed, the two had to be inseparable if the new religion was to survive. An element of that
administrative leadership that has been widely misunderstood outside Islam was the necessity in Arabia of military
leadership. The tribes of Arabia lived by honor and retaliation, individuals who were also tribe members were
expected to defend not only themselves and their property but also their honor and other members of their tribe. To
identify with Muhammad in Islam was, in a sense, to give allegiance to a new type of tribe. Thrust upon Muhammad
were the responsibilities of a sheik to lead, defend, and avenge the members of his tribe. To fail in that responsibility
would have made seem very different from Jesus, they lived in very different societies. Muhammad’s course,
however, would not be unheard for those who have studied the history of Judaism, for there are several precedents
for leaders who combined administrative, military, and spiritual leadership roles. The Sikh gurus had to take a
similar stance to survive among Muslims and Hindus.
 When Yathrib became Medina, the city of the Prophet, not all inhabitants shared with equal enthusiasm
Muhammad’s leadership. The ansars (helpers), who had helped him to come to the city of Medina, welcomed him,
and the muhajirun (companions), who came from Mecca to make their new homes with Muhammad welcomed a
chance to live without persecution for their new faith. But a third group, which included many Jews, was composed
of those who did not honor Muhammad as a prophet and who wished that he and his followers would get out of their
lives and stay out. Tensions were present from the beginning of his stay, and they grew as it became necessary for
Muhammad to make their new rules for the lives of the faithful. As Muhammad built his house and the main mosque
and as his supporters acquired places to live and tool such jobs as were available, frictions developed that added to
the smoldering resentments that carried over from earlier conflicts among the various tribes and clans. The startling
revelations of the Qur’an continued to stir the Prophet. An illiterate man, received the messages during periods of
withdrawal from his surroundings. His period of reception were filled with awe. Later, he would recite the message
he had received. He then applied the messages to developing laws and practices.
 Muhammad’s role was, indeed, an awesome responsibility, as Fazlur Rahman has written
 The Meccans were not satisfied with having Muhammad free in Medina building a rival faith. Abu al-Hakam, the
chief of Muhammad’s main enemies, and others sought ways to cause difficulties for the Muslims beyond
confiscating their properties. The Muslims were sending out armed parties to various territories, sometimes these
were led by Muhammad, but often they were led by lesser persons. Many times these expeditions were well received
in peace, and Muhammad’s caused gained friends, if not military allies. Eventually, a Muslim raid on a Meccan
caravan south of Mecca incited a retaliatory raid from the Meccans that took place at Badr in 624. To their surprise,
the Meccans were soundly defeated, and the Muslims gained not only more wealth but also more respect among the
sheiks whose allegiance they sought. Abu Sufyan of the Meccan Ummayads raised money for an army to avenge the
defeat that they had suffered at Badr. Things were reversed at Uhud in 625, and the Meccans defeated the Muslims,
even wounding Muhammad. The Meccans failed to finish the war, however, and the Muslims were able to recoup
their losses and make preparations for the next encounter. The next attack was on Medina itself by a superior force
of Meccans led by Abu Sufyan, including numerous tribes they enlisted along the way. Medina survived for two
reasons: Muslims had gathered in provisions from the fields that the Meccan force would have needed to sustain a
siege, and they borrowed a Persian expedient of digging a trench on the north or open side of the city, the other sides
being protected by hills. These unexpected developments and unreasonably cold and stormy weather eventually led
Abu Sufyan to lift the siege and return to Mecca.
 In March 628, Muhammad took sixteen hundred men and set out for Mecca, intending to make a religious
pilgrimage. The Meccans were upset, and some of them under Khalid Ibn al-Walid, the budding military genius, set
about to block Muhammad’s progress. Taking a different route, the Prophet arrived at al-Hubaybiyyah, a few miles
from Mecca. Both sides were divided over whether to fight. The truce Muhammad negotiated with the Quraysh gave
ten years of peace and let the Muslims return the next year to make

IMPORTANT MUSLIM TEACHINGS

 - Follow the Five Pillars of Islam.
- There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet (SHAHADA)
- Pray toward Mecca five times a day (SALAT)
- Give alms, and contribute a portion of wealth to the welfare of the community (ZAKAT)
- Make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime is possible.(HAJJ)
- Fast during daylight hours of Ramadan (SAWM)

When Muhammad, the Messenger of God, appeared in Arabia in the seventh century of the Common Era,
Judaism had already completed the Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. The Christians, now leaders of the official
religion of the Roman Empire, had long ago agreed on the collection of their New Testament. Although Rome
had fallen to Visigoths, Constantinople thrives as the center of the Byzantine Empire. Muhammad’s recitations of
God’s word to him to set in motion dynamic religious and political fervor that threatened or toppled Jewish and
Christian strongholds around the Mediterranean Sea. Inspired by God, Muhammad combined religious, military,
and administrative genius to unify the tribes of Arabia into one people, Muslims, God’s revelation to him affirmed
the tradition of Abraham and Ishmael as builders of the Ka’bah Mecca (Makkah). Prophets to Israel were also
honored in Islam, John the Baptist and Jesus were accepted as true prophets of God. Muhammads recitation,
uttered after inspiration by God were piously written down by his followers, later to be combined into the Holy
Qu’ran, who accepted as true prophets of God’s will for humankind.
Also known as a reverent, admirable person, Muhammad endured attacks from factions within his city of Mecca
and from polytheists of the country sides. Preserving despite an assassination attempt on his life, he established a
rival holy city in Medina that eventually reaffirmed Mecca as the preeminent center of Islam. When Muhammad
died, Arabs were unified in one faith and prepared to promote their religion in the Byzantine empire.
Muhammad’s closest family and associates would be influential women as well as men who become his
successors. Khadijah, his sympathetic and supportive older wife; A’ishah, his younger wife, married after the
death of Khadijah, and his four daughters undoubtedly influenced his reforms initiated on behalf of all women in
Islam. Although marriages evoked criticism from Jews and Christians, Muslims interpreted them as evidence of
his compassion for women particularly for the widows of his fallen comrades.
Among the youngest of the world’s major religions, Islam, the third sibling among the children of Abraham,
spread from Arabia into the Middle East, Asia, North Africa and Europe.

ACTIVITY 5- MODULE 5
Noting the historical background of Islam, identify the purposes of each of the Five Pillars of Islam through an
essay. Give brief explanations as to how these are so.
In addition, reimagine these pillars as something that is practiced in your faith and/or culture. Identify the
purposes of these pillars if they were practiced in your faith and/or culture. Give brief explanations as to how
these are so.
Criteria:
Main Point – 10 points
Organization of Content – 5 points
Clarity of Idea – 5 points

Place your reflective essays on bond papers (Century Gothic, 12 if encoded. It can also be handwritten)

REFERENCES:
Calano, M., Cornelio, J., Sapitula, M. (2016). Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems. Rex Book Store, Inc.
Mabaquiao, N. Jr. (2016). Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems. Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.
Stefon, M. (2012 ). Christianity: History, Belief, and Practice. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Mattews, M. (2007). World Religions. Thompson Higher Education.