IslamLecture at convention centre

VANCOUVER

JANUARY 30 2009

Islam Today

• Fastest growing religion in the world

• 1.3 Billion worldwide

Indonesia (200 M) > India (180 M) > Pakistan (160 M) >

Bangladesh (120 M) > China (80 M) > Egypt (70 M)

Asian > African > Arab > Anglo-Saxon/Caucasian

• 7 M Muslims in the USA, 3M are Arabs (roughly half of the Arab

Americans are Christians)

• 10,000 Muslims in the Lehigh Valley

• Yet Islam remains the most misunderstood religion

Passportcc.wmv

Intro

• Islam means submission to One God

• root word slm same root for peace.

• Peace is attained through complete obedience/submission to God.

• Muslims believe in one God and in Muhammad as the final Prophet of God.

ByzantineEmpire *

Persian Empire

An Arabian dynastyAn Arabian

dynasty *•

• 570 Muhammad born in Mecca.

• 610 First revelation (27 Ramadan).

• 622 “Hijra” Muhammad & followers escape prosecution and go to madinah (Yathrib). Year 1 in the Islamic calendar ‘Missionaries’ sent all over Arabia

– building peaceful coalition(Wars imposed on fledgling Muslim community by Meccans)

• 629 Muhammad re-enters Mecca peacefully Forgives all enemies destroys idols in the Qaaba. single-handedly, brings peace to war-torn Arabia

• 632 Muhammad dies in Madinah.

Timeline

Islam by the death of Mohammed 632

Islam at 644

732, 100 Yrs after Mohammed

Beliefs

• Tawhid: Unity (Oneness) of God

• Adalah: Justice of God

• Nubuwwah: Prophethood

• Imamah: Shiite Belief

• Qiyamah: (day of resurrection)

Tawhid

• Monotheism (central tenet of Islam)

• Shahadah: “None worthy of worship but God”

• Allah = God (same word used by Christian Arabs) Allah (Arabic) = Eluhim (Hebrew) = El (Aramaic)

Justice of God

• God can not be unjust because he is independent and above need

• Islamic Philosophical thought (falasafa)

(Free will/Predestination)

Prophets

• Acknowledges Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac,

Jacob, Joseph, Moses,David, Solomon, Zacharia, Jesus,

John the Baptist, and others as prophets

• A special place for Jesus and Mary (e.g., 3:45,46; 4:156-

158; 19:1-98) (entire chapter dedicated to and titled Mary)

• Accepts Miraculous birth of Jesus.

• Rejects the divinity of Jesus (no trinity).

Jesus in Islam

• "Behold! the angel said: 'God has chosen you and purified you and has chosen you above the women of all nations. O Mary! God gives you the good news of a word from Him, whose name shall be Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honored in this world and the hereafter, and one of those brought near to God" (3:42).

Quraiysh

Qussaiy

Abdmanaf

Abdshams Hashem

(Amneh+) Abdallah Abutalib Hamzeh Alabbas Abulahab Alhareth

(661-750) (750-1258)

Muhammad Ali

Adbelmuttalib

Ummayah Dynasty Abbbassides Dynasty

Abraham

Ismail

Adnan

Relation with other Faiths

• Quran is the only holy book that mentions other

religions/faith (Judeo-Christian and others as well)

• Jews and Christians are respectfully addressed as People

of the Book

• Islam sees itself as a continuation of the Judeo-Christian

tradition (Abrahamic faith)

• Muslim Law (sharia) resembles the Halaga

Other Faiths

• Islam sees itself as a continuation of the Judeo-Christian Tradition:

• "Say, we believe in God, and that which was revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob, and the tribes and that which was entrusted unto Moses and Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have submitted" (3:84).

• Islam did not impose itself by the sword. "There must be no compulsion/coercion in religion" (2: 256)

• Muslims have to respect Jews and Christians, the "People of the Book," who worship the same God (e.g., 2:62; 29:46).

"And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better, unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong: but say, 'We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one; and it is to Him we bow.”

• In one of his last public sermons Muhammad said “God tells all human beings, "O people! We have formed you into nations

and tribes so that you may know one another" (49: 13). Do not conquer, convert, subjugate, revile or slaughter but to reach out toward others with intelligence and understanding”

• The Levant remained mainly Christian for almost 200 Yrs. No one was forced to convert to Islam

• The right of all faiths to worship was respected

• Sites of worship, holy places and shrines of all faiths were protected

Relation with other Faiths

Resurrection (Afterlife)

• Notion of responsibility for Human action

• Good rewarded and Evil Punished

Practice

• Salah: 5 times daily prayer

• Saum: Fasting

• Hajj: Pilgrimage to Meccah

• Zakat: Religious Tax

• Jihad: Striving for the Good

Salah: Prayer

• Shade from the “storm” of daily life

• Can be offered individually or in congregation (sense of community/unity and equality of all people)

• “In the mosque when the call for prayer is sounded and worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim: "God Alone is Great." I have been struck over and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes man instinctively a brother.”

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) the first woman governor of free India

Saum: Fasting

• Refrain from food and drink during the day

• Struggle to refrain from all sins (spirituality)

• Nights spent in prayer/contemplation

• Inculcates Discipline, appreciation for God’s bounties, understanding the plight of the poor

Hajj: Pilgrimage

• Once in a Lifetime: Meccah

• Re-enactment of the story of Hagar and Ishmael

• Unity of all mankind

• Intense spirituality (Plains of Arafat)

• Malcolm X: “white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair…all together, brothers! All honoring the same God…all in turn giving equal honor to each other." (Malcolm X, 323)

Zakah: Tax

• Mandatory tax on wealth to benefit poor

• In addition to voluntary charity/sadaqah

• Social Justice

Jihad: Struggle

• Jihad = Struggle (primarily against oneself) and NOT Holy War. Jihad is a virtue.

• The "greater jihad” in the Quran is that of the soul, of the tongue, of the pen, of faith, of morality, etc. The "smaller jihad" is that of arms.

• Hadith: "We are returning from the lesser jihad [battle] to the greater jihad"

• "The best jihad is the speaking of truth in the face of a tyrant“

Physical: Combat waged in defense against oppression

• Quran revealed in the context of an all-out war imposed on early Muslims by Meccans, and many passages deal with the conduct of armed struggle.

While one finds "slay [enemies] wherever you find them!" (e.g., 4: 89), in almost every case it is followed by something like "if they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you to harm them" (2:90; 4: 90; 5: 2; 8: 61; 22: 39)

Since good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou evil with something that isbetter, and love he between whom and thy self was enmity may then become as though he had always been close unto thee, a true friend" (41:34)

• God does not allow harm of civilian, and requests the protection of women, children and the elderly during war (4:96; 9: 91; 48: 16,17)

“If any one slew a person--unless it be for murder or for spreading mischiefin the land--it would be as if he slew the whole people; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” (5:32)

• You shall feed and protect prisoners of war, and you shall not expect a reward (4: 25,36; 5:24)

Thus, the only permissible war in the Quran is one of self-defense, you cannot kill unarmed (civilians), and you have to protect prisoners of war

Jihad and the Conduct of War

Jihad and the Conduct of War

• Warfare is always evil. But sometimes you have to fight to avoid persecution. e.g., the one Mecca inflicted on early Muslims (2: 191; 2: 217, 4: 75; 22: 40)

• Muslims may not begin hostilities "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not

transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors." (2: 190).

• Hostilities must end quickly and cease if enemy seeks peace (2:192-3; 41:34)

• Suicide forbidden and condemned (6:151, 17:33, 25:68)

• Hadith: 'Do not attack a temple, a church, a synagogue. Do not bring a

tree or a plant down. Do not harm a horse or a camel’

Science and Civilization

Bertrand Russell(1872-1970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate,

whose emphasis on logical analysis greatly influenced the course of 20th-century philosophy.

"Our use of the phrase 'the Dark Ages' to cover the period from 699 to 1,000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe… From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished. What was lost to Christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary… To us it seems that West-European civilization is civilization; but this is a narrow view."

Jared DiamondProfessor of Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine; recipient of the

Pulitzer Prizefor General Non-Fiction in 1998.

“Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe; it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills, trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse.”

[Guns, Germs, and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies, 1997, p. 253]

• A dedicated quest for knowledge and a burst of scientific innovation in a multi-ethnic and multi-faith society

• Lasted for over 8 centuries, producing a plethora of knowledge and discoveries in all disciplines

• Induced the later European renaissance

• Repeated requests in both the Quran and the Hadith for seeking knowledge, and application of rational thinking

Seek knowledge even in ChinaSeek knowledge from crib to graveThe ink of a scholar is superior to the blood of a martyrWere people aware of what lies in the acquisition of knowledge, they

would endanger their lives to obtain it (grandson of the Prophet)

• Initially, massive translation of Greek and Indian writings preserved all literary and scientific works, advanced on them, and transmitted

them to Europe

Medicine and Pharmacy

• Institutionalized and regulated the practice of Medicine and Pharmacy The modern concept of clinics Board exams and license to practice. Regulatory boards (FDA's) Classification of plants and Algae for their medical use, and outlined

possible side effects (PDR’s)

Hospitals: • Tens, including specialized, in each of Baghdad, Qurtoba, and Damascus. • Mobile hospitals for emergency. • Departments and University Hospitals.• Patients records and vital signs, urine tests, family history.

Surgery:

• Threads from animals intestine.

• Opium and Hashish for Anesthesia.

• Alcohol as disinfectant.

• Treatment of cataract, and removal of kidney and gallbladder stones

Autopsy

• Students training (Anatomy)

• Cause of death

• Abu-bakr Elrazzy; 9th Century • Father of Physicians, great clinician and experimentalist • Many books including “Smallpox and Measles”

• Ibn-Elhaytham: 10th Century • Multidisciplinary scientist. Ophthalmologist • Mechanism of sight. Function of the eye • Over 100 books in Med. and Math.

• Ibn-Seena (Avicenna): 10th Century • The “Qannun”, the medical text book in Europe till 19th Cen.• Described the medical use of over 2700 plants• Light has a finite speed, which is much faster than the speed of sound

• Ibn-Rushd (Averroes): 13th Century • Philosopher and Physician. Many books

• Ibn-Elnafees: • Blood circulation and the role of lungs

• Abulkassim Alzahrawi (Abulcasis or Albucasis): 11th Century • One of the greatest surgeons. A good dentist and GP. • Removal of breast cancer. • Hemophilia and its hereditary transmission (female to male)

Known Physicians

• Arabic terms and methods of preparation for Alkali, Alcohol, Tartarate

• Discovered and prepared in pure form 28 elements (Ibn Elhaytham)

• The processes of crystallization, fermentation, distillation, sublimation, Preparation of acids (H2SO4, HCl, HNO3) and bases (NaOH)

• Light travels in straight lines. Laws of refraction, reflection and illusion of light.

• Eluded to the Magnetic properties of some objects

Chemistry and Physics

• Arabic numeral and the decimal system of numbers. Right Left. English. But 1000

• Arithmetic. Roots and powers• Algorithm = Alkhawarismi

• The mathematical ZERO• Algebra (combining fractions). • The Use of (x, y, z) to solve complex arithmetic/geometric problems• Trigonometry (Albairuni and Albuzjani), differential and Integral. = 3.141596535898732.

Some known Mathematicians:

• Abu-bakr Alkhawarismi (Logarithms)

• Thabit Ibn Qarra (9th Century). Calculus.

• Ibn-elhaytham• Albairuni (10th Century)• Albuzjani • Omar Elkhayam (2° & 3° equations)

Mathematics

• Astrology (myth) Astronomy (science)

• Movement, path, and location of planets and stars

• The Asturlab

• Earth is spherical and rotates along its axis and around the sun.

• Calculated earth circumference (Albairuni)

• Calculated the time needed for one rotation around the sun (solar year), with an error of 2’ 22” only (Albattani)• Calculated the equinoxes

• Current names of most constellations, and many stars are from Arabic

Some known astronomists:

• Alkindy (9th Century)

• Albattani (9th Century)

• Ibn-elhaytham (11th Century)

• Thabit Ibn Qarra

• Almajreeti

Astronomy

Important Holidays

Eid Al-adhaa (the sacrifice)

• Symbolizes Abraham attempt to sacrifice his son Ishmael by God’s request. • Should sacrifice an animal and give the food to the poor.

• The pilgrimage to Mecca

Eid al Fitr • Observed at the end of the holy month of Ramadan (the fasting month)

Al-israa/ meraj• Symbolizes the ascending, in Jerusalem, of Mohammed's soul to heaven

The Birthday of Muhammad

Ashuraa (Shia)

Spectrum of Islam

• Sunni

• Shia

• Sufi

• Authors: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Karen Armstrong,

William Chittick, Sachiko Murata, John Esposito• Abdallah Yusuf Ali (Translation of Quran)• “Islam, An Empire of Faith”, PBS Video, 2001

• Websites: www.al-islam.org

• http://www.quran.org.uk

• http://it-is-truth.org/

• www.uga.edu/islam

• www.islamway.com

• www.islamicity.com

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