Lineage and inheritance rights were extremely important to this tribal culture. These groups claimed patrilineal decent from common ancestors and bloodlines were traced through the father’s family. While one can always be sure of whom the mother of a child is, the identity of the father can always be questioned. This may have contributed to the reason that honor became tied to the reputation and sexual behavior of the women. The violation of honor was not only a detriment to the man himself, but to the family, his lineage, the transmission of his wealth and the perhaps the entire tribe. Segregating the women ensured their protection and the legitimacy of the heirs. (Bates, 2001: 237,38)
In their tribal culture a woman is a second-class citizen. The Father has the final say in all family affairs. The sons are ranked next, than the mother, than the daughters. The birth of a son is something to be celebrated. Daughters are born without fanfare. At best, they can be arranged to be married off, in order to build or strengthen tribal relationships. Under customary tribal law women have scant legal rights. Even if Islam were never born, this situation would still exist. These issues are related to patriarchy in general, not to any specific religion. (Westheimer, 2009:101)
Islam’s attitude towards women is much more progressive than that of the tribal culture. Islam improved conditions for women living in this patriarchal society. (Westheimer, 2009:24) The Koran advocated that women were to be considered an equal to a man: "I never fail to reward any worker among you for any work you do, be you male or female, you are equal to one another”. [Quran, 3:195] “The rights of the wives with regard to their husbands are equal to the husbands' ri...
... middle of paper ...
...s Cited
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkely: University of California Press, 1993.
Abu-Saad, Kathleen. Weaving Tradition and Modernity: Bedouin-Arab Women in Higher Education. Israel: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2011.
Bates, Daniel G. and Amal Rassam. Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Inc., 2001.
Beck, Lois and Nikki Keddie. Women in the Muslim World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.
Fernia, Elizabet and Basima Qattan Bezirgan. Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977.
Westheimer, Ruth. Shifting Sands: Bedouin Women at the Crossroads. New York: Lantern Books, 2009.
Yusif Ali, Abdullah (translator). The Holy Qu’ran. London: Bibliophile Books, 2000.
Islam is often presented in the media with a negative stereotype of violence and evil in relation to terrorism and terroristic acts not as a religion. After reading the chapter on Islam in Honoring Our Neighbor’s Faith I found much of the teaching on Islam attempt to promote harmony and in no way commit harmful acts on others or to be a terrorist. I personally had a misconception to this notion of linking all Islamic and Muslims with words such as militant and terrorist. A patient of mine recently
Muhammad was meditating in a cave in 610 AD, he was overcome by a powerful force and was instructed to recite. Attracted to Islam’s message of equality and social reform, people of different backgrounds converted and followed the Five Pillars of Islam: belief, prayer, fasting, alms-giving, and pilgrimage. After Muhammad died in 632, there was confusion over who should lead the Muslims. Muhammad was born in around 570 C.E. in Mecca, modern day Saudi Ar...
Islam is currently the world’s second-largest religion, with more than 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide. Although there are currently fewer Muslims than Christians, Islam is growing at a rate that is nearly twice that of Christianity. The main beliefs of the Islamic religion include the belief in one and only God, Allah. The main objective for those of Muslim faith is to abide by Allah’s will in hopes of a favorable outcome on the Day of Judgement—the day when every human’s life will be assessed to
through periods of time in which the way they were run or enforced underwent changes in practice and leadership. In many cases disagreements and differing outlooks among members of certain religions were to blame for these changes. Christianity and Islam are two examples of religions that have experienced changes over the course of their existence. While these religions seem to have little in common at first glance, both have strikingly similar pasts that consist of radical splits due to disagreements
Jihad is an Arabic word that means “exerted effort”. It is mentioned in the Qur’an and projected as exerting effort to change one’s self to the better which is seen as each person’s most difficult jihad. This concept of jihad and the betterment of one’s self is almost unknown to non-Muslims specially westerners who refer to jihad as the holy war and terrorism. What people fail to realize is the multi dimensions of jihad which consists of two parts: the greater jihad which is actually considered the
community to follow so that they may have the most peaceful and problem- free life. Islam takes this notion of peace and obedience and applies to everyday living for the members of its community. Islam law is of great importance to the Muslim community because it provides specific courses of action for living and also supplies mechanisms for considering how to deal with situations that are not discussed in the law. Islam law covers all aspects of life; it has its own personal, moral, civil, ethical,
preaching.[17] Muslims hold that the message of Islam - submission to the will of the one God - is the same as the message preached by all the messengers sent by God to humanity since Adam. Muslims believe that "Islam is the eternal religion, described in the Qur'an as 'the primordial nature upon which God created mankind.'[18][19] Further the Qur'an states that the proper name Muslim was given by Abraham.[20][19] As a historical phenomenon, however, Islam was originated in Arabia in early 7th century
After the assigned readings and class discussions, I realized that Muslim law is very strict. Muslims must try to live according to God’s book, the Koran, and by the rules Mohammed taught them. Every Muslim should pray five times a day: at dawn, noon, afternoon, evening, and night. He needs to pray facing Mecca. On Friday at noon, Muslims go to a Muslim temple to pray. After praying, they hear a sermon. There is no priest or minister, only a leader called the Iman. The mosque is built so that when
While Europe was experiencing the Dark Ages, Islam was experiencing a time of intense philosophical and scientific achievements. The Islamic empire in the eight century preserved and elaborated scientific tradition. They assimilated ancient wisdom and adapted it to their own needs and thinking. Islamic civilization expanded society as a whole and made great contributions in many fields, such as science, math, medicine, theology, and architecture. Without the contributions made by the Islamic culture
Islam Islam is comprised of three essential beliefs: The belief in God, obeying his moral laws, and believing in the after-life. Submission to God is directly followed by obeying the moral standards of everyday life. The Qur'an makes morality reign supreme and ensures that the affairs of life, instead of dominated by selfish desires, be regulated by norms of morality. These laws are the standard by which God determines the life of the believers, and the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement.
Antiquity-1650 Final Paper Hayden/His-101 The Raid growth of Islam During the tenth century, Islam was the largest religion which covered more than half of the known world. According to History-world.org, a nonprofit nonpartisan website that provides well-sourced history research, “The Islamic state expanded very rapidly after the death of Muhammad through remarkable successes both at converting unbelievers to Islam” (History-world.org). Islam was beginning to grow so rapidly and began to spread all
Islam, War or Peace? Islam is a monotheistic religion or faith that about one billion people follow today. It has been known to link with violence in conversations, world news, articles, books, and other pieces of literature mostly in the western part of the world. On the other hand Islam still promotes peace, which many people tend to underestimate because the multitude of people juxtapose Islam with violence and think that Islam is trying to dominate the world, while others think that it is an
Islam 's fundamental duties, practices, and beliefs are summarized in the Five Pillars of the faith, laid down in one of the Prophet 's Hadith and accepted by all Muslims. The five pillars are, the profession of faith, the daily prayer, payment of the Zakat, fasting during Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. These are religious obligation of the Islamic practice. Although Christian 's religion is summarized in the Ten Commandments, the two faiths have similar and ideas, practices, and beliefs
access to means of production and others having more access. Furthermore, most religions go against each other’s beliefs and as for Islam; they have neglected the ideologies of the west. In order to understand how religious values are interconnected is through language games; we think in certain ways because of issues of power. There is a strong belief that Islam and politics are directly tied. They are tied in the sense that the building blocks of the religion dictate how they ought to behave
This is practiced every year during the month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the calendar year, which is September in the United States (What are the Five Pillars of Islam?, n.d.). Every year in the month of Ramadan, all Muslims fast from dawn (fajr) until sundown (maghrib), abstaining from food, drink (including water), and sexual relations. It is the month that Allah first revealed the Qur 'an to our beloved Prophet