"Yet those Jews and Christians with whom they came in contact often taunted the Arabs because God had sent them no revelation or prophet of their own."
- What are we--five years old?
"Thus Muhammad did not see his revelation as new; what was revealed through him was simply the old religion of the one God worshipped by the Jews and the Christians."
- So the same God, three different names?
"In the Qur'an, God gives very clear and concrete commands. It is wrong to build a private fortune and good to share your wealth equally; the first religious duty is to create a society where the poor and vulnerable are treated with respect. Like the Hebrew prophets, Muhammad stressed the prime duty of practical compassion: care for the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the oppressed was a Muslim's first responsibility."
- Society is only as wealthy as its poorest members.
"Over and over again the Qur'an insists that the revelation to Muhammad did not cancel out the teaching of previous prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Job, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus. The Qur'an was simply a restatement and a reminder of the single message that God had sent down to all peoples."
- iiiiiinteresting.
"The holiness of the Ka'bah was protected by a sacred area with a twenty-mile radius. It became a sanctuary where all violence was forbidden and thus a refuge from the ceaseless tribal warfare. This had been responsible for Mecca's commercial success. Arabs could meet there in relaxed circumstances, trading with one another without fear of enemy attack."
- Brilliant idea. But did it actually work in reality?
"One of the most holy of these other places was Jerusalem" --> WHY?
- "The great prophets David and Solomon had prayed and ruled there: Solomon had built a sacred mosque."
- "The city was associated with some of the holiest prophets, including Jesus, whom the Muslims held in high esteem, even though they did not believe he was God."
- Later Muslims could claim that the Prophet Muhammad had also visited Jerusalem..."
"After his death, Muhammad was revered as the Perfect Man by Muslims: he was not divine--Muhammad had tirelessly warned Muslims not to deify him as the Christians had deified Jesus--but his faith, virtue, and surrender to God had been so wholehearted that he had forged in his own person a living link between heaven and earth."
- So modest.
"Muhammad and his wives lived in little apartments...around the periphery of this courtyard. The poor of the city could congregate there to receive alms, food, and care. Public meetings to discuss social, political, and military as well as religious matters were also held in the courtyard."
Wow. Very interesting. Excellent architectural use.
"The Prophet is reported to have said: 'Revile not the world for the world is God,' and the Qur'an constantly urges Muslims to regard the beauty and order of the earth as ayat. Thus trees, which were prohibited on the Temple Mount, are encouraged in a Muslim sanctuary; there will be fountains in the courtyard, and the mosques will be full of light; birds can fly around during the Friday prayers. The world is to be invited into the mosque, not left outside."
- Love it.
"Whatever the case, in 633 Muslim armies began a new series of campaigns in Persia, Syria, and the Iraq...These wars almost certainly not inspired by religious motives: nothing in the Qur'an encouraged Muslims to believe that they had a duty to conquer the world for Islam."
- Whoaaa....if everything is sacred then how is war not desecrating the holy? So they weren't inspired by religious motives even though to be muslim literally means to surrender yourself to God? We're they being 'un-muslim'?
"They were not inclined to support the Byzantines, and the Jews in particular welcomed Muslim armies into Palestine."
- OMG!!! gvlwfbowhwFBLBwnbejfkvSB!!!
"Umar...presided over the most peaceful and bloodless conquest that the city had yet seen in its long and often tragic history. Once the Christians had surrendered, there was no killing, no destruction of property, no burning of rival religious symbols, no expulsions or expropriations, and no attempt to force the inhabitants to embrace Islam. If a respect for the previous occupants of the city is a sign of the integrity of a monotheistic power, Islam began its long tenure in Jerusalem very well indeed."
- So there is a God.
"Christianity, the religion of love, had often expressed itself in Jerusalem in hatred and contempt. Now Islam, the faith of unity and integration, seemed to fall prey to disintegration and sectarianism."
- Oh, Jerusalem.
"The Jews were not the only children of Abraham and should remember that he had been neither a Jew nor a Christian but a muslim."
- Errrghh I kind of have an issue with this statement. It's my understanding that Islam didn't crystalize until the coming of Muhammad. But she means muslim in the sense of surrendering one's self to God. That's like calling the Founding Fathers greek because they believed in democracy.
"To die in Jerusalem was a special blessing: 'He who chose to die in Jerusalem, had died as if in heaven'."
- Oh God, this statement could be interpreted so many different ways...
No comments:
Post a Comment