Islam final review

Terms:
Qadar (Sunni vs Mu’tazili opinions):
Mu’tazili - From Feras review – you are in control of your own actions; you are responsible. Anything good that happens is from God; everything bad is because you have sinned and are responsible
Sunni - From Feras review – God is in control of your actions; all actions are predetermined so if you are predetermined to go to Hell why bother being good in life?
Shari’a – immense body of law interpreting the Qur’an and applying its teachings to daily life, regulates moral conduct, family life, business practice, government, and other aspects of the Muslim community
The right way to live one’s life
Fiqh – From Islam book - literally “understanding” the term used for law of for jurisprudence. A jurist is thus called a faqih; legal theory is called usul al-fiqh (literally “the roots of understanding”); and substantive law is called furu al-fiqh (“the branches of understanding”).
From Feras review session – is the fallible interpretation of Islamic law by Jurists
Ijtihad – From slides – exertion; thorough examination of the legal sources From Feras review – type of legal reasoning, how to interpret the law
From book – legal reasoning exercise by a jurist (literally “exertion”)
Haram/halal – from Feras – legal categories for controlling human actions, what is forbidden and what is allowed. Haram is forbidden. Halal is Permissible.
From book… Halal is any act permissible under Islamic law. Popularly used to describe food conforming to dietary regulations
From book… Haram is prohibited – used in connection with acts and also the popularly used term to describe prohibited food and drink; found also in the expression al-Masjid al-Haram, “Sacred Mosque” referring to the Grand Mosque in Mecca
Mufti – From Feras review - Sunni legal expert who interprets the law… from slides – answers legal questions with a fatwa
Mahdi - From Feras review – the return of the 12th Imam at the end of time who is currently “hidden”
From book – literally “guided one,” a reference to the messianic figure who will emerge in the end-time to help establish just rule on earth. For Shi’ites the title of the returning Imam.
Dhikr - From Feras review – Remembrance of God – recitation, devotional remembrance of Allah through reciting his 99 names, hadith, and Qur’an recicitation
Baraka - From Feras review – God’s grace; a quality…. Something that is like being close to God; someone who is charismatic… has a special connection to the divine
Nafs - From Feras review – souls?
Islamism - From Feras review – Islam as a political ideology and that Islam should guide social and political as well as personal life

People:
Abu Hanifa – died 767. Early Baghdad jurist (or legal scholar) for whom the Hanafis, one of the four Sunni madhhabs (“schools of legal thought”), are named – relied less on the tradition of Medina and more on reason; the oldest and largest school
Malik – From Feras review - Jurist, scholar, founder of Melik school of law…. The Qur’an is the primary source of derivation of rulings
Al-Shafi’I - From Feras review – Jurist, scholar founder of Shafi’is school of law
From book – Died 820. Early jurist and author of the earliest treatise on legal hermeneutics; eponym of the Shafi’I school of legal thought
Within the Sunni branch of Islam and emphasizes proper derivation of laws through application of principles as opposed to speculation
Ibn Hanbal – died 855. A Baghdadi jurist known for his austerity and rejection of Mu’tazili notions about the Qu’ran’s so-called createdness. The Hanbali madhaab, one of the four Sunni “schools of legal thought” is named for him.. From slides – Hanbalis school…….. very strict and conservative
Zayd b. ‘Ali – respected member of Muhammad bloodline; grandson of Husayn, led revolt in Kufa against Umayyads, the First Zaydi Imam
Qadi Nu’man – isma’ili jurist; official historian of Fatimid caliphs
Shi’i Imams to know:
‘Ali – died 661. Cousin of Muhammad and later his son-in-law, one of first Islam converts, and fourth Caliph (656-661). Shi’ites regard him as the first Imam, that is, Muhammad’s direct spiritual successor. For Sunnis, he is one of the four “rightly-guided caliphs.”
Husayn – Died 680 – The younger of Muhammad’s two grandsons through his daughter Fatima and her husband (Ali). Third Shi’ite Imam. Was martyred at Karbala by the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid
Ja’far al-Sadiq – From Feras review – 6th Imam and founder of Shi’I fiqh.
From book – Died 765 – Important early pious figure, religious scholar, and , for the Shi’ites, the 6th Imam; a quietist who enjoined moderation
Hasan al-‘Askari – From Feras review – 11th Imam and father of hidden 12th Imam – was poisoned and killed
Muhammad al-Mahdi – From Feras review - 12th Imam and will come back at end of time with Jesus
Rabi’a al-‘Adaiyya - From Feras review – She was first Sufi Saint based in Basra
Rumi - From Feras review- Sufi poet and founder of Meledivi order
Muhammad ibn ‘Adb al-Wahhab - From Feras review – Muslim religious leader and reformer. Condemned any religious practice that he could not tie back to the Prophet. Purification – we need to return to the pure faith; the need to clean house and go back to the beginning; right before main colonial period
Muhammad al-Sanusi - From Feras review – founder of Muslim-Sunusi order; Muslim scholar; anti-colonial (fighting the Italians)
Muhammad ‘Abduh - From Feras review – Muslim reformer Mufti/Jurist; Founder of monder Salaffiyya movement (Salafi movement)
Rashid Rida - From Feras review – believes only two forms of Islam, the Qu’ran and Sunna; Muslim religious reformer and disciple of Muhammad ‘Abduh
Hasan al-Banna – From Feras review – Founder of Muslim Brotherhood and thought that “the Qur’an is our constitution and the Prophet is our example”
Queen Awra - From Feras review – Muslim Isma’ili queen based in Yemen
Fatima Mernissi - From Feras review – Moroccan/Muslim feminist – believes that the Prophet wanted to elevate women
Sheikh Hasina - From Feras review – Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Abdurrahman Wahid - From Feras review – President of Indonesia; believed in separation of religion and state …. Islam should not be a state religion and Islam should not be a political theology
Elijah Muhammad - From Feras review – Mentor of Malcom X and leader of the Nation of Islam
Hamza Yusuf - From Feras review – opened Zaytuna college – signed “a common word between us and you” by Islamic Scholars to Christian leaders calling for peace and understanding
Amina Wadud - From Feras review – Muslim Feminist; female scholar – converted to Islam at 20 and became female Imam in 2005

Short Questions:
1. What are the five dimensions of Sunni Islam?
a. Legal Schools
i. Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi’I, Hanbali
b. Theological Schools
i. Ash’ari, Maturidi, Hadith-scholars, [Mu’tazila]
c. Sufi orders – too many to name
d. Hadith canon
e. Ideal of the Caliphate
2. What are God’s severn eternal attributes according to the Ash’aris?
a. From the slides:
i. Knowledge ii. Power iii. Will iv. Speech
v. Life vi. Hearing vii. Sight
b. From the Creed of al-Iji
God is characterized by all the attributes of perfection and is free from all the marks of deficiency; thus He is knowing of all objects of knowledge, is powerful (with power) over all things possible, is willing of all things possible, is speaking, living, hearing ad seeing, and He is free from all the attributes of deficiency.
3. Who are the four greatest men after Muhammad according to most Sunnis? Are they all equal, or is there a specific ranking?
a. From slides – Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali – “Their excellence is in this order”
4. What are the five primary sources for Islamic law? (from slides)
a. Qur’an
b. Sunna
c. Opinions of early Muslim authorities
d. Consensus (ijma’)
e. Analogical reasoning (qiyas)
5. Where in the world are Imami Shi’a found?
a. The Twelvers – approx. 88% of Shi’a and are found in:
i. Iran ii. Southern Iraq iii. Lebanon iv. Pakistan
v. Bahrain
6. What is Islamic Feminism? What sources do Islamic feminists study and reinterpret?
a. What is Islamic Feminism? From slides:
i. It is “an attitude and intention to seek justice and citizenship for Muslim women”
b. Study:
i. “The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women's Rights In Islam" that states the founder of Islam asserted the equality of women, rejected slavery and envisioned an egalitarian society.
7. Which three European countries colonized most Muslim-majority countries? Identify at least once country each of these European countries colonized.
a. England – India and Egypt
b. France – Algeria and Morocco
c. Netherlands - Indonesia
8. What are four tensions that arose in many Muslim countries in the wake of European colonialism?
a. Westernized elites vs. Traditional elites
b. State regulation of Islam
c. Elimination of traditional artisans
d. Massive military and police forces
9. What made Ayatollah Khomeini’s concept of “Rule of the Expert Jurist” such a radical idea in the Imami Shi’I tradition?
a. From slides??? “Islam is fundamentally opposed to the whole notion of monarchy… Monarchy is one of the most shameful and disgraceful reactionary manifestations”… Opposed to Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi…. Discontent with US-sponsored Shah’s policies
b. “It is the duty of Islamic Scholars and Muslims to put an end to this system of oppression and… to overthrow these oppressive governments and form an Islamic government”
10. Why were many Muslim scholars opposed to the partition of India in the years leading up to 1974?

11. What are two major Muslim movements in Indonesia and how do they differ?

a. Muhammadiyah – reaction to Dutch colonizers, strong focus on Hadith, liberal use of ijtihad (initially), generally shuns politics (Slide 18 in Islam in South and SE Asia)
b. Nahdlatul Ulama – “The Awakening of the Religious Scholars,” stress of taqlid of master scholars, embraces Sufism and visiting ancestors tombs, engaged in politics (Slide 19)
12. What are three major orientations of Sunni American Muslims, according to Dr. Sherman Jackson? How does each one approach the classical Islamic tradition?
a. Islamism (political Islam)
i. Represented by groups such as Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Fellowship, Liberation Party ii. Emphatic emphasis on moving beyond simple piety and theological/juridical casuistry to issues of power and politics. Power is need to reform modern Islam society, of course, because power has been (and still is) used to corrupt it
b. “Neofundamentalism”
i. Tend to reject the overtly political agenda of the Islamists and seek instead to reform Muslim society by purifying Muslim beliefs and practices of all of their unsanctioned premodern and modern accretions through direct (and often scathing) critique. Place little stock in political violence (they tend to political quietism), they can be quite emotionally and psychologically “violent.” In America, the most influential neofundamentalists hail from or are influenced by the Salafi movment.
c. Modern Islamic traditionalism (neotraditionalims) - - - ??
i. Is an enormous repository of intellectual capital. The role of Muslim tradition is not to provide cut-and-dried solutions to all modern problems, it can greatly assist modern Muslims in avoiding the trop of prostituting their religion to the latest secular fads, by forcing them to vindicate their conclusions in conversation with their premodern forbears. This can also ensure a place for a number of religious, spiritual, and even epistemological insights which have largely been lost in Western discourse to the purportedly panacean power of reason.

d. FROM SLIDES:
i. Liberals/Progressives ii. Modern Islamic Movements iii. Modernized Islamic Tradition/neotraditionalism
13. What were three unorthodox Muslim organizations that introduced Islam to the African-American community in the 20th Century?
a. Moorish Science temple founded by Timothy Drew – blacks are of Moorish ancestry and an emphasis on economic self-sufficiency
b. Ahmadiyya – from teachings of Ahmad who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer at the end of time
c. Nation of Islam – known popularly as the Black Muslims and founded by Elijah Muhammad to promote black separatism and the Islamic religion – Allah was black and white man is/was the devil
14. According to the documentary, Inside Islam, what percentage of Muslims felt the terrorists attacks of September 11 were entirely justified? What reasons did they give for this opinion and how do the experts in the film explain it?
a. 7% believed it was justified
b. There did not appear to be any Qur’anic verses used in support of the actions rather attention seeking and wanting to be leaders in their communities

Longer Questions:
1. What does Rumi teach us about the nature of humans and their relationship with God? Why did God create us? Whom does Rumi urge to “sleep on?”
a. Used writing in poetry so as to attract those who were/are in search of spirituality or seeking a closer connection to God. He believed people should follow Tawhid – the union with God – and urges people who don’t want to pursue a union with God, love life, or do not feel love to “sleep on”
2. What are three Qur’anic verses relevant to debates over women’s dress? Provide a general description of the content of each verse.
a. Sura 24 Verse 60 – women that have passed the age of child bearing and have no hope for marriage are allowed to remove their outer clothing without sinning…. Though because God is all knowing it is probably better not to
b. Sura 33 Verse 59 – all wives, daughters, and female believers should put their dresses tightly around them when out and about so that they can be “known and not abused”
c. Sura 33 Verse 52 (Hajib Verse) – when you ask anything of a women you should ask them from behind a hajib because it is purer for her and the man’s hearts.
3. How does Akbar Ahmed classify the primary religious paths of Muslims in contemporary South Asia? What are some of his observations in each of them?
a. Firstly there are the three models of contemporary Islam so as to allow Western readings a chance to talk/engage with Muslims and acknowledge “common humanity”
b. Ajmer Path – peaceful Sufi mysticism that is characterized by universalism, music, asceticism; an openness to those who are non-Muslim; stands for a more quietist, mystical Islam, stresses inner calm, a transcendence of earthly passion through the direct apprehension of the divine (God fearing) and openness to other forms of spirituality from other religions like Hinduism and Buddhism
c. Aligarh Path – the desire to modernize Islam WITHOUT the corruption; desire to strengthen Islam by learning from the West; tried to harmonize on the university Oxbridge mode with Islamic practices
d. Deoband Path – non-fatalistic, practical, action-oriented orthodox Islam; rejects non-Muslims; involves the use of Hanif fiqh and hadith scholarship; strong reverence for teachers and careful adherence to Islamic law; asserts mainstream or orthodox beliefs and traditions
4. How and why did Malcolm X’s message change over the course of his life? What was his major political ambition just prior to his death?
a. Initially believed in the stance of the Nation of Islam that there should be black separatism that that the white man is the devil/evil; after his world tour and hajj pilgrimage he came to support/advocate for Sunni Muslims and gained a more worldly perspective; he stated he wanted to work for/with civil rights leaders and start advocating for black rights