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Class Prep
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Believing, Behaving, Submitting
- In our last class we spoke of Islam on its own terms, not as a religion or theological system, but as a din—the term in the Qur'an that comes closest to the western term "religion." Three things characterize the din: faith (iman), right behavior (ihsan) and submission (islam). Today, we want to take a closer look at these three components.
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- Since our topic includes ihsan, or right behavior, the journal question for today asks you to reflect on whether the sacred and profane (that is, the non-sacred) are two separate or even mutually exclusive categories, or whether they can be or even must be integrated. The question is, specifically, "Can mundane, daily activities be sacred?" We've actually begun to address this question already, for when Jews imagine that God creates this world and reveals mitzvot, or Christians claim that the sacred enters the profane to save it (the incarnation), they are addressing this same central question of western religion—how the world and the sacred are bound or related (religare is the Latin word to bind or fasten). While this is the heritage of several millennia of religious experience, our modern secular world operates by a different mythology—that religion is a holdover from a primitive, superstitious past, that it is or should be "dead," and that religious beliefs and behaviors should not influence public discourse and political life. Whether you are a secular humanist or a believer or just undecided, try to imagine the pros and cons of both the secular and the religious positions. Do we lose something important by separating the sacred from this world (or even erasing the sacred entirely)? What do we gain? Are there dangers in integrating this world and one's notions of the sacred? Are there advantages, and might it even be unavoidable, for adherents of these religions to act in this world on their beliefs?
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- There are just three questions from today's Qur'anic and secondary readings:
- What do Muslims believe about Allah? What is Allah's essence, what are Allah's actions?
- What are the five pillars of din? (The Qur'anic readings on the syllabus are grouped by pillar.)
- What is the Qur'an's anthropology? That is, how are humans imagined, can they act freely, and how should they organize their social and political lives?
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- We will also discuss the Sunni-Shi'ite split in class, because while both groups share their answers to those three central questions, they differ somewhat on the nuances (for example, who should govern the ummah, the role of the imams as intercessors, which hadiths are binding for religious practice, and the rituals that flow from their particular histories).
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- Assigned Readings
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- Primary: Surahs 37:35; 48:29 (shahadah); 2:43, 110, 177; 4:162; 5:55; 11:114; 17:78-79 (salat and zakat); 2:183–200 (hajj and siyam)
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- Secondary: John L. Esposito, excerpts from Islam: The Straight Path, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) 36-43, 46-52; Campanini, The Qur'an: The Basics 35-65
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- Slides from Lecture
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- Further Reading
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- Bhala, Raj. Understanding Islamic Law (Shari'a). New Providence, New Jersey: LexisNexis, 2011.
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- Hazleton, Lesley. After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
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- Takim, Liyakat N. The Heirs of the Prophet: Charisma and Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam. Albany: SUNY Press, 2006.
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- Links
- Islam: Empire of Faith - part of the Empires series jointly produced by PBS and Devillier Donegan Enterprises (DDE), a Washington, D.C.-based global television program development and distribution company.
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- Sources
- Photographs:
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