World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 23 стр.

riod, Islam acquired its characteristic ethos as a religion uniting in itself both                        Sources of Islamic doctrinal and social views
the spiritual and temporal aspects of life and seeking to regulate not only the in-           Islamic doctrine, law, and thinking in general are based upon four sources,
dividual’s relationship to God (through his conscience) but human relationships         or fundamental principles (usul): (1) the Qur’an, (2) the sunnah (“traditions”),
in a social setting as well. Thus, there is not only an Islamic religious institution   (3) ijma’ (“consensus”), and (4) ijtihad (“individual thought”).
but also an Islamic law, state, and other institutions governing society. Not until           The Qur’an (literally, Reading, or Recitation) is regarded as the Word, or
the 20th century were the religious (private) and the secular (public) distin-          Speech, of God delivered to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. Divided into 114
guished by some Muslim thinkers and separated formally, as in Turkey.                   surahs (chapters) of unequal length, it is the fundamental source of Islamic
     This dual religious and social character of Islam, expressing itself in one        teaching. The surahs revealed at Mecca during the earliest part of Muhammad’s
way as a religious community commissioned by God to bring its own value sys-            career are concerned with ethical and spiritual teachings and the Day of Judg-
tem to the world through the jihad (“holy war” or “holy struggle”), explains the        ment. The surahs revealed at Medina at a later period in the career of the Prophet
astonishing success of the early generations of Muslims. Within a century after         are concerned with social legislation and the politico-moral principles for consti-
the Prophet’s death in A.D. 632, they had brought a large part of the globe –           tuting and ordering the community. Sunnah was used by pre-Islamic Arabs to
from Spain across Central Asia to India – under a new Arab Muslim empire.               denote their tribal or common law; in Islam it came to mean the example of the
     The period of Islamic conquests and empire building marks the first phase          Prophet; i.e. his words and deeds as recorded in compilations known as Hadith.
of the expansion of Islam as a religion. Islam’s essential egalitarianism within              Hadith (a Report, or collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet) provide
the community of the faithful and its official discrimination against the follow-       the written documentation of the Prophet’s word and deeds. Six of these collec-
ers of other religions won rapid converts. Jews and Christians were assigned a          tions, compiled in the 3rd century A.H. (9th century A.D.) came to be regarded
special status as communities possessing scriptures and called the “people of           as especially authoritative by the largest group in Islam, the Sunnah. Another
the Book” and, therefore, were allowed religious autonomy. They were, how-              large group, the Shi’ah, has its own Hadith.
ever, required to pay a per capita tax called jizyah, as opposed to pagans, who               The doctrine of ijma, or consensus, was introduced in the 2nd century AH
were required to either accept Islam or die. The same status of the “people of          (8th century A.D.) in order to standardize legal theory and practice and to over-
the Book” was later extended to Zoroastrians and Hindus, but many “people of            come individual and regional differences of opinion. Though conceived as a
the Book” joined Islam in order to escape the disability of the jizyah. A much          “consensus of scholars”, in actual practice ijma’ was a more fundamental opera-
more massive expansion of Islam after the 12th century was inaugurated by the           tive factor. From the 3rd century AH ijma’ has amounted to a principle of rigid-
Sufis (Muslim mystics), who were mainly responsible for the spread of Islam in          ity in thinking; points on which consensus was reached in practice were consid-
India, Central Asia, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa (see below).                        ered closed and further substantial questioning of them prohibited. Accepted in-
     Besides the jihad and Sufi missionary activity, another factor in the spread       terpretations of the Qur’an and the actual content of the sunnah all rest finally
of Islam was the far-ranging influence of Muslim traders, who not only intro-           on the ijma’.
duced Islam quite early to the Indian east coast and South India but who proved               Ijtihad, meaning “to endeavor” or “to exert effort”, was required to find the
as well to be the main catalytic agents in converting people to Islam in Indone-        legal or doctrinal solution to a new problem. In the early period of Islam, be-
sia, Malaya, and China. Islam was introduced to Indonesia in the 14th century,          cause ijtihad took the form of individual opinion, there was a wealth of conflict-
hardly having time to consolidate itself there politically before coming under          ing and chaotic opinions. In the 2nd century AH ijtihad was replaced by giyas
Dutch colonial domination.                                                              (reasoning by strict analogy), a formal procedure of deduction based on the
     The vast variety of races and cultures embraced by has produced important          texts of the Qur’an and the Hadith. The transformation of ijma’ into a conserva-
internal differences. All segments of Muslim society, however, are bound by a           tive mechanism and the acceptance of a definitive body of Hadith virtually
common faith and a sense of belonging to a single community. With the loss of           closed the “gate of ijtihad”. Nevertheless, certain outstanding Muslim thinkers
political power during the period of Western colonialism in the 19th and 20th           continued to claim the right of new ijtihad for themselves, and reformers of the
centuries, the concept of the Islamic community, instead of weakening, became           18th and 19th centuries, because of modern influences, have caused this princi-
stronger. The faith of Islam helped various Muslim peoples in their struggle to         ple to once more receive wider acceptance.
gain political freedom in the mid 20th century and the unity of Islam contrib-
uted to later political solidarity.

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