ISLAM 101 (Cont'd)

Toward the end of his masterful (and
fascinating) exposition of Muslim
teaching and history, Reza Aslan (RA)
writes: "The tragic events of 9/11/2001
may have fueled the clash-of-mono-
theisms mentality among those Muslims,
Christians, and Jews who seem so often
to mistake religion for faith and scrip-
ture for God." Religion, you'll recall
from previous discussion, is the system
by which a faith-community shares
its insights through ritual and stories.
It is all too human, as we have seen in
studying its histories. Faith is the
individuals own experience of the
ineffable, the infinite, the mysterium
tremendum.

Sacred history is more about faith than
it is about religion. RA again: "Rather,
sacred history is like a hallowed tree
whose roots dig deep into primordial
time and whose branches weave in and
out of genuine history with little concern
for the boundaries of space and time.
Indeed, it is precisely at those moments
when sacred and genuine history collide
that religions are born. The clash of
monotheisms occurs when faith, which
is mysterious and ineffable and which
eschews all categorizations, becomes
entangled in the gnarled branches of
religion."

"But it (9/11) also initiated (RA goes on)
a vibrant discourse among Muslims
about the meaning and message of Islam
in the 21st century. What has occurred
since that fateful day amounts to nothing
short of another Muslim civil war -- fitnah
-- which, like the contest to define Islam
after the Prophet's death, is tearing the
Muslim community into opposing factions."

RA's book not only examines original Islam
as found in the Quran, he maintains that a
reformation is now going on throughout the
Muslim world (MW) to recover that early
teaching, which was pluralistic, tolerant,
and without racial, religious, or gender bias.
Women were honored, and accorded equal
treatment in Muhammad's program at Medina,
as were Jews and Christians living there in
peace.

According to RA: "The Quran proposes the
unprecedented notion that all revealed
scriptures are derived from a single concealed
book in heaven called the Umm al-kitab, or
'Mother of Books'." Here are the words of
the Quran: "We believe in God and in that
which has been revealed to us, which is that
which was revealed to Abraham and Ismail
and Jacob and the tribes (of Israel), as well
as that which the Lord revealed to Moses and
to Jesus and to all the other prophets. We
make no distinction between any of them;
we submit ourselves to God."

How did so many factions within Islam
become intolerant, violent, and even brutal?
Well, how did Christians in the Middle Ages
wind up burning nice people like Joan of Arc
and thousands of others like her while they
were still alive? Obviously, they got way off
the track, to put it mildly! So did the followers
of Muhammad. Terrorism, torture, and mass
killings are no more a part of true Islam than
the Inquisition was true Christianity.

More on this later.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net