World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 53 стр.

there exist spiritual beings in addition to man. The highest of these are the an-      must not be understood to mean that human actions lie outside the scope of
gels, the messengers and servants of God who carry out his will in the world.          God’s control. Nothing lies outside God’s control, and that includes the free ac-
The Koran mentions Michael in addition to Gabriel. Some of the angels are              tions of men. It can be said, then, that God predestines some to heaven and
fallen, however; the Koran mentions Iblis, or Satan, and Harut and Marut.              some to hell. Yet this does not abolish man’s responsibility for his own deeds
     Besides the angels there is another kind of invisible being called the jinn (a    and misdeeds.
plural; the singular is jinni, the origin of the story of the “genie” in Aladdin’s          This doctrine is much more controversial than the other four, since it seems
lamp). The jinn were created by God out of fire, and, unlike the angels, eventu-       to imply a contradiction. In general Moslem thinkers have been content to ad-
ally die. They are of both sexes and can be good or evil.                              mit it is a profound mystery, and leave it at that, emphasizing that what counts
                              Prophets and scriptures                                  in Islam is not theory but practice.
     Although non-Moslems view Islam as the youngest of the major religions,                A consequence of this doctrine is that Moslems will very often react to
Islam does not think of itself like that. It sees itself as identical with the first   events, even to the worst of crimes, with die exclamation: It is God’s will! (In-
revelation God gave to mankind. The Koran mentions some twenty-five in-                sh’Allah).
dividuals to whom God gave the Koranic message in earlier times. These are
the prophets. A prophet in this sense is not necessarily a person who predicts
the future, but one who speaks on behalf of God. They include Adam, Noah,                                              The Law: Shari’ah
Abraham (Ibrahim), Joseph (Yusuf), Moses (Musa), Aaron (Harun), David                       The Koran reveals the will of God for mankind. This constitutes a Law,
(Dawud), John the Baptist (Yahya), and Jesus (Isa). All of these were Moslems.         which all are bound to obey on penalty of eternal condemnation. This Islamic
     To each one God entrusted a scripture, containing essentially the same            law in its totality is termed the Shari’ah, meaning “the right path”. The Shari’ah
message as the Koran: to Moses, for example, he gave the Torah; to David the           includes not only laws concerning strictly religious matters, but also many other
Psalms; to Jesus the Gospel. But in each case the scriptures were corrupted and        aspects of life, such as marriage and the family, inheritance, divorce, and gov-
falsified by evil men. As a result these texts as they now exist are completely        ernment.
unreliable. It was to correct these distortions that God sent Mohammed, reveal-
ing to him again the true Koran. It alone is now the pure scripture, possessing                                      The Five Pillars of Islam
the original form given it by God, and so it supersedes all the earlier ones.               There are five religious practices that Islam enjoins on its followers as a
     Islam, then, is simply the true form of what Judaism and Christianity ought       minimum.
to be, and would be if they had remained faithful to their original inspiration.                                         The Shahadah
                      Resurrection and the Last Judgement                                   This is the Witness or profession of faith mentioned above: There is no
     As mentioned above, the Koran describes itself as a book of warning. What         God but Allah; and Mohammed is his prophet.
it warns mankind about is the Last Judgement. Almost every page of the Koran                The statement itself made in the Witness bears the title of the Kalimah. It is
contains an urgent reminder that at the end of time, in an earth-shaking cata-         this statement that makes a person a Moslem. Anyone who utters it during the
clysm in which he will raise all the dead to life, God will pass an eternal sen-       course of his life, even if only once, is accounted a Moslem. It also forms part
tence on every human being. That sentence will hinge on whether the person             of the formal daily prayer, described next.
was a believer. Those who believed the revelation given through Mohammed                                                 Worship: Salat
will be rewarded with the delights of heaven. Those who did not believe will be             All Moslems, both men and women, are required to perform ritual or for-
consigned to the unending torments of hell.                                            mal prayer, called Salat. This prayer is not so much a request for favors or
     A true believer is not a person who merely accepts mentally the truth of the      blessings as a public recognition of the sovereignty of God. It includes various
Koran, but one who puts it into practice by carrying out the divine law.               bodily postures such as bowing, sitting, standing, and prostration with the fore-
                       The divine decree and predestination                            head touching the floor, while reciting such phrases as “God is most great” (Al-
     Since the Koran lays so much emphasis on the judgement of God, it plainly         lahu akbar) and the Shahada. This public prayer is not the same as private
believes that human beings have free will. Those who are condemned to hell re-         prayer (du’a), for which no special formula is prescribed.
ceive that punishment only because they deserve it, since God is just. But this

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