This post is a part of the Series: Islam
The media’s negative treatment of the Islamic faith has caused a deep misunderstanding of the faith. The politics of Islamic states and terrorist attacks “have often obscured or, at the very least, raised questions about the faith of Islam and its relationship to violence and terrorism” (Esposito 1). Even from the early beginnings, Islam has put a strong and profound emphasis on moral responsibility and accountability (Esposito xi). From Muhammad’s inspiration and direction, Islam has a “mission to create a moral social order” (Esposito 32). It was Muhammad’s example (summa) that “became the norm for the community” (Esposito 13). After Muhammad’s death, “early Muslims were faced with the enormous challenge not only of institutionalizing justice in their own communities but also sharing” justice with others who had suffered at the hands of injustice. (Sonn 32). Looking at the origins of Islam will help further enlighten its true nature.
Islam was both a faith and political order. Centuries after Muhammad died his “local Arabian polity became a vast empire” (Esposito 37). As Islam developed so did Muslim institutions such as the caliphate, law, education, military, and social services making the two very intertwined (Esposito 37). Muhammad was the model for living a life as a true Muslim and it was in Medina, the capital, where the “Quranic mandate took on form” under the direction of Muhammad (Esposito 37). This community is what formed the framework for the whole state. The Medinan community lived out the Quranic mandate “for Muslims as individuals and as a community ‘to transform the world itself through action in the world’” (Esposito 37). Islam is what gave the foundation for rulers and policies for expansion (Esposito 37). The ideal of this expansion was to have a community of true believers who dedicated their lives to spreading God’s law, justice, and mercy to all people. This is the vision that Arab armies held as they began their conquest instructed by the caliphate. The caliphate was the protector and defender of the faith and “was to assure the following of God’s law and spread the rule of God through expansion and conquest” (Esposito 45). It is surprising how the early conquests of Islam spread so rapidly and successfully and because of this Muslim tradition has viewed this as “miraculous proof or history validation of the truth of Islam’s claims” (Esposito 38). As they conquered, they replaced rulers but preserved their governments and cultures (Esposito 38). It was the exchange of rulers, one who was now bringing peace to people who had experienced oppression and heavy taxation under years of Byzantine-Persian warfare (Esposito 39-40). The taxes imposed by Muslims were lighter than those of other empires and the armies were not allowed to take conquered lands for their own personal use (Sonn 29). This conquering is referred to as jihad, which can be best understood as the “struggle to follows God’s will” (Esposito 40). Today this word is often associated with mass destruction and the use of violent force, but that is not the true nature of jihad. Jihad is both the struggle of individual Muslims to lead a good, moral, and just life and the “universal mission of the Muslim community to spread God’s rule and law through teaching, preaching, and where necessary armed struggle” (Esposito 40) Armed struggle is never used as the first option. People being conquered were offered three options. First, conversion into the Muslims community (Esposito 41). Second, “acceptance of Muslims rule as ‘protected’ people’” (Esposito 41) Third, battle if neither of the first two options were accepted (Esposito 41). Islam did not spread by force alone and it was never the first option.
Because of the conquest of Jewish and Christian areas it is often believed that Islam does not support religious freedom. Muhammad looked to Judaism and Christianity as “natural allies whose faith had much in common with Islam” (Sonn 16). Muhammad was social reformer however and saw that both Christianity and Judaism had gone off course. The Byzantine Empire was persecuting “their Jewish subjects, as well as those Christians who rejected Orthodoxy”, this oppressive form of Christianity was what Muhammad saw and is what he had a problem with as it obviously was straying from the true message Jesus had taught (Sonn 29). For groups like Jews and Christians, Muslim rule was welcomed because it was not oppressive (Sonn 29). Both groups were allowed to have religious freedom because Islam believes that the differences among religions are a part of the divine plan because humans are unique and not everyone is the same, so the interpretation and expression of God would not be the same for everyone (Sonn 12). Islam is not about trying to overtake other religions or be intolerant of other religions. Islam actually supports other believers in the submission to God’s will.
Islam teaches that everyone who is Muslim is bound by a common faith and is part of the umma, “a single universal community” (Esposito 9). Muslims believe they will be judged on their actions and the effects of their actions on the society and also the society’s impact on the world. This is because the call to be servants of God is an individual and a community obligation (Esposito 31). It is the community that they are a part of that will also be judged on its actions. This aspect of community emphasizes the “social dimension of service to God” (Esposito 31). This was the ideal. However, divisions did start to arise with the development of social classes. Non-Arabs converted to Islam became a separate class from Arab Muslims (Esposito 46). Also, non-Muslims who were People of the Book became a separate class as well (Esposito 46). This is definitely not what Muhammad had in mind as his final speech stated, “that Arabs have no superiority over non-Arabs” (Sonn 30). In the beginning, this did not prompt problems but later in history this is a point of contention as people felt like second-class citizens. This contention eventually lead to the downfall of the Umayyad Dynasty (Esposito 47).
The Umayyad Dynasty created much division among Islam. One group called Kharijites had been around since the Rightly Guided Great Caliphs, but they were sparked more during this time and lead uprisings (Esposito 48). Kharijites “were very pious believers who interpret the Quran and Sunna of the Prophet literally and absolutely” (Esposito 48). They also believed that the mandate in the Quran to “‘command the good and prohibit evil’ must be applied rigorously and without compromise” (Esposito 48). Their outlook has “informed contemporary radical groups” like ISIS and al-Qaeda (Esposito 49). Many people mistake these believes to be a true form of Islam while in reality it is an offshoot of it and is used today to promote violence. Another group that split were the Shii. They believed that leadership should be centered around the family of the prophet and “it to the descendant of Muhammad” (Esposito 49). Critics of The Umayyad system said it “produced a society based more on the command of the caliph than the command of God” (Esposito 55). Critics such as Law and Mysticism “emphasized the need to understand and consolidate a life and society informed by revelation” (Esposito 55). God’s law is what was believed should be the true measure of the society (Esposito 55). Revolts held by the Shii eventually led to the fall of the Umayyad Dynasty.
After the Umayyad Dynasty came the Abbasid Caliphate which can be coined “the flowering of Islamic Civilization” (Esposito 57). During this time there was support of the development of “Islamic scholarship and disciples, built mosques and established schools” (Esposito 57). Success during this time “was not based on conquest but on trade, commerce, industry, and agriculture” (Esposito 58). During this time was also the development of Islamic Law, Sharia (Esposito 58). Islamic civilization was really “the result of a dynamic, creative processes as Muslims borrowed freely from other cultures” (Esposito 61). While Islam seems to be flourishing, the European Christian response to it was often hostile and intolerant. Muhammad was identified as the anti-Christ and this attitude is captured in Dante’s Divine Comedy, where Muhammad is assigned the lowest level of hell (Esposito 64). Islam was looked as “religion of the sword led by an infidel driven by a lust for power and women” (Esposito 64). Islam grew to become a world power as Christianity became “stagnant in its Dark Ages” (Esposito 64). The Crusades were being led by people who had villainized Islam and had political ambitions. Pope Urban II who led the defense of Jerusalem saw it as an “opportunity to gain recognition for papal authority and its role in legitimation the actions of temporal rulers” and “Christian rulers, knights and merchant were driven primarily by political and military ambitions” (Esposito 66). Jerusalem was a sacred city for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and when it was conquered in 638 “churches and the Christian population were left unmolested” (Esposito 64). Also, Jews were allowed to return, as they had been banned to live there by Christian rulers (Esposito 64). But, when the Crusades started “wave after wave, they went into Muslims lands, killing Jews and Christians as well as the Muslims” (Sonn 73). In Jerusalem “the Christian soldiers slaughtered all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, Muslim and Jewish” (Sonn 73). This was a much more violent and unjust way of conquest than practiced by Islam.
The Quran shows of a society “based on the unity and equality of believers, a society in which moral and social justice will counterbalance oppression of the weak and economic exploitation” (Esposito 32). The goals of a just society are very clear “but it is difficult to figure out how to achieve those goals ‘on the ground’” (Sonn 32). As the Quran puts it, humanity was created to be God’s “Khalifah” (Quran 2:30). Meaning humanity is “responsible for maintaining the equality in which all were created” (Sonn 33). Islam from its conception has been based on the ideas of social justice. Just as in Judaism and Christianity, the biggest struggle that can be seen through Islam’s history is the struggle of interpreting and following the “straight path” (Esposito 35).
Cited:
Esposito, John L. Islam: The Straight Path. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Sonn, Tamara. Islam: History, Religion, and Politics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.