I would like to touch on the five pillars of Islam we learned about in class. The five
pillars seem to be a straightforward set of acts one must follow to show their faith in
Allah. The first interesting thing is that these things were attributes shared by the
prophet Muhammad as well, who seems to be person believers of Islam would want to model their actions
after in order to get closer to god. I found it interesting that Muhammad
fought in a war early on for his religion. Which led me to put two and two
together to understand why some extremist Shia practitioners find the Jihad
(which I learned in bible school to be the 6th pillar?) necessary to
get closer to god.
Furthermore, this also reminded me of a class I took once. We
discussed how Judaism has been preserved for so long, not only as a religion;
but Jewish people can be considered as an ethnic group (since the Bible times) as well.
When I think hard about all the people groups mentioned in the Bible, none are
really present today. I have never heard of a present day Canaanite for
example. Why is this? I think the answer is obliviously related to the structure of it's religion. Religion creates lasting bonds in groups of people that last generation-to-generation,
and place-to-place over time. And more specifically, when the religion is just
getting started, the first followers are often persecuted for their “different”
beliefs (like how Muhammad and Jesus was both persecuted for their beliefs). Which I think usually brings religious followers closer together if they are scapegoated as being the "wrong" relgion. This
made me realize Islam, as a religion, has transcended over time from a once
persecuted group of followers fighting for their faith to a major religion,
same as Christianity (and Mormons and Scientologists for that matter). Muslims seem
to share fundamentals of their religion, which are the five pillars. Similar as
when Jewish people gather with other Kosher practitioners to celebrate religious
holidays, muslims also come together to pray and their diet is also slightly
different because of religious beliefs. This is curious, because I generally
think of the Torah, Bible, and Qu’ran as being so different. To me, the five pillars of
Islam seems to be a codified way to practice the Islamic faith, allowing a
Muslim to get not only closer to Allah but to feel closer with fellow Muslims, in
similar ways the Torah and Bible does with its codes.
D. Lee
Hi Dalton, I haven't heard of or been able to find reference in scholarly sources to the idea of jihad as the '6th pillar.' I'll look into it some more; if you want, you can also try to figure out where that teaching came from in your Bible class.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you pinpointed "extremist Shia practitioners" as thinking jihad is particularly important. Emphasis on jihad doesn't split along Sunni/Shi'a lines. The history of the interpretation of jihad is complex. I've also posted the Encyclopedia of Religion entry on jihad to our Blackboard Intro to the Qur'an readings folder; you can look at that if you like.
This was about 10 years ago. I was told this from a lady who lived in Afghanistan and Iraq on the bases, her husband was stationed there. My intention was to bring up what I had learned about Islam (from my personal religous experiences), I was not neccisarily saying it was true. I put the idea in ( ) with a ?, I guess I should have elaborated more. Also, I was saying some shi'a practioners, which i was aware of. I am still learning about Islam. Generally speaking, there are sunni radicals just as there are shi'a extremists. I was just aware that some shi'as believe jihad is important. Im not familiar with sunni. If my post seemed to deem shi'a people as extremist that was not my intention.
ReplyDelete