Blog 3

Posted by: shibli6 on: February 7, 2012

In: Uncategorized
Comment!

Last week in class we discussed a lot of the basic history of Mecca and of the Prophet and his people. We also discussed why people follow religion. I really liked the discussion because it examined something that I had never really thought about before. I have an Islamic background, and have learned about Islam academically before but I had never really been in a class where we examined the fundamental reasons for why we believe in a higher being. I really like this class because I feel like its breaking me out of indoctrination and causing me to think about the fundamental aspects of my religion that I often don’t really think about. Examining the social context of Muhammad’s upbringing has also proved to be very interesting.

From reading the first article I have to say I don’t like the way the author discredits the sources of the biographies of Muhammad. I may be completely biased but I think that the accounts are often accurate because of the system that the narrations are taken with. From what I learned in the past I was told that there is a chain of narration called the Isnad in which the chain of narrators for the saying is listed. The sayings are even categorized by their authenticity ranging from weak to unanimously agreed upon. It is my understanding that many of these sayings are the sources for the prophet’s biography. I am not saying that there is no room for error or bias especially since the biography was written by humans who were very devout followers of Muhammad but I do not like the way the author almost completely discredits the biographies. The second article also goes into deeper detail about the Hadith and what role they have played in each sect of Islam. I particularly liked the third article, Personal Piety. I liked how the author includes the example of how the prophets followers took off their shoes because they saw him doing it, and how the prophet knew that they were doing this only in his imitation. I think this shows the immense amount of respect that prophet’s followers had for him . When I thought about this I was amazed at how minute a detail was mimicked by his followers.

Something that is in the news today pertaining to Muslims are the riots in Syria. What I find interesting is that it is a major world issue, can even be classified as a massacre but it really is not making any headlines in the western world. I read a CNN article about the current situation there and the numbers for killings are staggering. I really hope that the Syrians win their freedom. The entire Arab Spring is so inspiring, what I think is even more inspiring is that the youth were the catalysts for this revolution. The Egyptian youth used Facebook as a means to coordinate the protests and in time these protests led to their freedom and this pattern repeated itself throughout the Arabian peninsula. Whenever I think of this a certain Margaret Mead thought comes to mind, “ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”.

In response to pshah12 I am surprised that the New York City police department would show a film like that. It is such an outward way of promoting negative stereotypes about Isam and Muslims. I often think that the reason for bigotry and hate in our country is because of media such as this. Stereotypes used for any culture or religion are usually inaccurate and propagate acts of hate.