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Hello students
From the Muslim view Islam can be understand is part of God's merciful
Providence present from all eternity,
but revealed at various moments throughout history
through his chosen Prophet of the time. Muhammad was one of these Prophets,
a man singled out by God, as Muslims believe,
and God is "Allah" in
Arabic, the same God that spoke to Abraham, Moses and
Jesus. Muslims believe that Muhammad
communicated God's message, his final message,
to his creation; and so he believed -
he is believed by islamic followers - to be what's called the 'Seal
of the Prophets' which means the last Prophet. The true Islam
is not a very manageable term. It is a religion
as we understand the word in the Westm a complex
set of beliefs and practices characterized by the same
perceptible unity and an equally
obvious variety as is Judaism and Christianity.
It is also a community, though,
sharing that common set of beliefs and practices but cut across
many ethnic, regional,
nationalistic, racial, and more recently,
national aspirations. It is finally
a civilization. As with many other religionsm
Islam does not appear all at once but it emerged slowly,
It evolved as part of a prolonged process
whereby it was differentiated from other religions
and other traditions of other religions. In Unit one you're going to learn more
about the religion
in the Near East -
what was happening then, what was the scene, the religious traditions which
preceded Islam,
the status the Arabian Peninsula,
and stereotypes that persist about the faith,
which for some in the West makes the study
of Islam more challenging than for others. Religion
is a passionate subject that
has throughout history engendered
healthy and unhealthy debate and discussion,
argument, criticism, rejection of ideas, persecution,
and even war. For many
it is their personal identity even more so than their
ethnicity, their race or their gender.
I want to remind all participants
in this course that this is an academic study
not a forum for attacking one another's
views, Discussion of various ideas, of
course, is welcome and encouraged; however,
courtesy and respect for differences
that students may have is essential to healthy disagreement.
You also will notice
in your readings, in your viewings, and in your discussions,
that many words that are in
Arabic or Arabic derivatives
or other similar languages that you'll
notice are spelled differently - words like
Sunna, words like Ka'ba,
words like 'Aisha, so
don't be concerned about that. However you
designate the word - as long as it's one of the acceptable spelling -
is fine with me in your discussion forums and in your papers.
So, I look forward then to an engaging,
active eight weeks with all of you.