Comparative Religion-Analytical Essay
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Textbook: Chapter 8, 9, 10
Lesson
Minimum of 6 scholarly sources (at least 2 for Judaism, 2 for Christianity, & 2 for Islam)
Please review criteria for scholarly sources.
Instructions
In a short essay, complete the following:
Explain the historical relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What are their geographical connections? What are their historical timelines?
Analyze the historical relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in order to make an argument about the similarities and differences between the three religions. Select one main example from the following list on which to focus your comparison: the nature of God, the nature of Jesus, Holy Books, or Salvation. Your analysis should span multiple paragraphs and utilize specific examples.
Conclude by examining the current relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam today. How has globalization influenced or affected the current relationship?
Your paper should include an introduction and thesis that clearly states your central claim, thoughtful examples and analysis in your body paragraphs, and a conclusion to finalize your thoughts.
Writing Requirements (APA format)
Length: 1200-1400 words (not including title page or references page)
1-inch margins
Double spaced
12-point Times New Roman font
Title page
References page (minimum of 6 scholarly sources)
Grading
This activity will be graded based on the Written Assignment Grading Rubric.
Weekly Objectives (WO)
WO4.1, 4.2, 6.11-6.13, 7.3
Resource:
Molloy, M. (2013). Experiencing the world’s religions (6th ed.). New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
CHAPTER 10
ISLAM
FIRST ENCOUNTER
You are in Malaysia, on your way south to Singapore. A friend has recommended that you visit the modern national mosque in Kuala Lumpur. Your first try is unsuccessful because the mosque is closed for midday prayer. After two hours at a nearby museum of Islamic art, you return to the mosque. You leave your shoes at the bottom of the stairs and walk up into the building.
The mosque is extraordinary. You are amazed at how well the traditional Islamic love of geometrical design has been adapted to modern architecture. The marble floors reflect the colors of the stained glass above and the movement of the many visitors walking toward the main prayer area.
As you approach the core of the mosque, you notice a sign on a rope indicating that only Muslims are allowed to enter. You overhear some Chinese visitors explain to a woman at the rope that they are Muslims. She directs them in. You come up behind them, just to get a better look. The large space is carpeted, and people are prostrating themselves in prayer. You and the woman begin to talk.
Page 408“My name is Aminah,” she says. “I’m an elementary-school teacher. Right now school is not in session, so I volunteer my time here.” Aminah is dressed in a floor-length blue robe with a full head covering. Only her face and hands are visible. “Do you have any questions?” she asks.
From what you have seen on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, you know that Aminah is conservatively dressed. So you ask the obvious question: “Why do you dress as you do?”
“I expected that,” she says with a smile. “So many westerners want to talk about clothes.” You look down, slightly embarrassed to be just another westerner with an obvious question.
“The way I dress makes me feel safe,” she says. “For me it’s comfortable. It reminds me that within Islam, women are protected.”
You look a bit doubtful.
“Yes, I know,” she continues. “It is possible to be too protected. Fathers and uncles and brothers sometimes make it their career to watch out for you, and that’s not always welcome.” You both laugh. “And sports can be difficult if one is all covered up. But we’re working on it.”
Aminah has finished her duty and is replaced by a man standing nearby.
“What about arranged marriages, especially of very young women?” you ask her. “And what about women being kept from education in some Muslim countries?” You ask these things just for the sake of argument, as you both begin to walk toward the exit.
“Things like that are cultural,” she says. “There are many old traditions that are not a part of true Islam, and they can be changed. A whole new kind of modern Islam is developing, especially here in Malaysia, and the roles of women are widening. You know the saying, ‘Do not judge a book by its cover.’ What you see of women like me may look traditional, but it’s a disguise. Inside, we’re modern. Come back again in ten years and you will see it even more clearly.”
Together you go down the steps in front of the mosque to a little kiosk. Aminah reaches into a drawer there.
“I want you to have this,” she says, as she hands you a blue book with gold writing on the front. “You can find all you need to know here. After you read it, maybe you can give us fresh ideas for a new, modern type of Islam.”
You look down at the book. Printed in both Arabic and English, it is a copy of the Qur’an.
As you wait for a taxi, you wonder about the Qur’an. Who wrote it? What does it say about Muhammad? And does it say anything about other religions? What does it say about women? As you climb into your taxi, you decide to start reading your new book that evening.
Page 409
THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF MUHAMMAD
Muhammad 1 (570–632 ce) was born in Mecca, in what is today Saudi Arabia (see Timeline 10.1 , p. 410). Much of what we know about him comes from his sermons and revelations in the Muslim sacred book, the Qur’an (“recitation”), and from the hadiths (also spelled ahadith; “recollections,” “narratives”), the remembrances of him by his early followers.
Timeline of significant events in the history of Islam.
In the days before Islam arose, the religions of the Arabian Peninsula were Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism (which we’ll discuss later), and traditional local religious practices. These local practices included worshiping tree spirits, mountain spirits, tribal gods, and jinni (the origin of the English word genie)—capricious spirits that were thought to inhabit the desert and even to enter people. The supreme god Allah was an object of faith but not of worship. Allah “was the creator and sustainer of life but remote from everyday concerns and thus not the object of cult or ritual. Associated with Allah were three goddesses, his daughters: al-Lat, Manat, and al-Uzza,” 2 goddesses related to nature, the moon, and fertility.
At the time of Muhammad’s birth, Mecca was already a center of religious pilgrimage. Located in Mecca was a black meteorite that had fallen to earth long before Muhammad’s time. It was venerated because it was believed to have been sent from heaven. A squarish shrine had been constructed to contain it, called the Kabah (“cube”). 3 By Muhammad’s day, as many as 360 religious images of tribal gods and goddesses had been placed within the Kabah, and tradition tells that twenty-four statues, perhaps associated with the zodiac, stood around the central square of Mecca. By Muhammad’s time, yearly pilgrimages to Mecca were already common, and a four-month period of regular truce among the many Arabian tribes was kept in order to allow this.
Muhammad’s grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, played an important role among the Quraysh, the dominant tribe of Mecca, and is even thought to have been custodian of the Kabah. Muhammad’s father died not long before Muhammad’s birth, and his mother seems to have died when he was just a child. Muhammad then went to live with his grandfather, and after his grandfather’s death two years later, he lived with his uncle, Abu Talib. 4
As an adult, Muhammad worked as a caravan driver for a widow named Khadijah , 5 who had inherited a caravan company from her deceased husband. The friendship between Khadijah and Muhammad grew over time. They married in about 595 ce, when Muhammad was 25 and she (tradition says) was about 40. 6 This marriage brought financial, spiritual, and emotional support to Muhammad; Khadijah proved to be his mainstay until her death. Together they had about six children. But sadly no boy survived into adulthood to become Muhammad’s hereditary successor. After Khadijah’s death, Muhammad remarried a number of times. It is possible he married several of his wives out of compassion, because in his society widows of soldiers often needed a husband for financial support and legal protection.
Page 410 From his travels as a caravan worker, Muhammad undoubtedly learned a great deal about several religions, including the differences within and among them. Although the monotheistic religions of his region shared a belief in one High God and emphasized the need for morality, there was much disagreement as well. Jews and Christians disagreed about the role of Jesus and the nature of God. Christians disagreed with each other about the nature of Jesus. Jews and some Christians forbade image-making, although most Christians allowed it. And another major influence, the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, so emphasized the moral struggle in human life that many people saw the world as being subject to two cosmic forces—good and evil.
Page 411
As a religious person, Muhammad spent time pondering and meditating. To do this, he frequently went to caves in the hills surrounding Mecca that had long been used for prayer. When he was 40, during a religious retreat in a cave at Mount Hira, he received his first revelation, as recorded in the Qur’an. A bright presence came to him and held before his eyes a cloth covered with writing. It commanded three times that he recite what was written there:
Recite in the name of the Lord who created—created man from clots of blood.
Recite! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who by the pen taught man what he did not know.
Indeed, man transgresses in…
