0.14 Religious perspectives on personality  (Page 8/14)

Discussion Question: There is a long and ongoing history of Christian meditation. Were you aware of this, or did you think that meditation and Christianity were unrelated? Does it seem appropriate to compare meditation to contemplative prayer?

Islam and Sufism

The last of the Abrahamic religions to be established, Islam has also been a profoundly successful religion. It ranks second in numbers only to Christianity, with some 1.5 billion followers around the world. Muslims , those who practice the Islamic faith, consider Jesus Christ to have been a great prophet, but they do not consider him to be the Son of God. They follow the teachings of the one whom they believe to be the last and greatest prophet: Muhammad (Wilkins, 1967).

The Foundation of the Islamic Faith

Muhammad was born around 571 A.D., in Mecca (in modern-day Saudi Arabia). An upright and honest man, Muhammad used to take refuge in a cave at Mount Hera, where he would contemplate (meditate?) good and evil. The religion of his time and region worshipped many spirits in the desert, including one called Allah . Muhammad came to believe that Allah was the one and only God, the creator of the universe. Muhammad devoted the rest of his life to preaching Allah’s message, and was soon literally run out of town by the authorities. He fled to the city of Medina, in the year 622 A.D., a date which marks the beginning of Muhammad’s formal efforts to establish the religion of Islam. Muhammad became a great leader, in the name of Allah, and when he died in the year 632 he controlled most of Arabia. Within one hundred years, Islam had spread around the Mediterranean to Europe, throughout North Africa, and to India in the East (Wilkins, 1967).

Muslims believe that Muhammad was directly descended from Abraham, through Abraham’s son Ishmael. Ishmael was the half-brother of Isaac, through whom the Jewish people trace their heritage to Abraham. He received his revelation from Allah through the angel Gabriel, and wrote it down in the Holy Qur’an , the holy book of Islam (the first English translation by a Muslim generally available in the West was originally published in 1917, and has seen numerous new editions since then; Ali, 2002). Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has a fairly simple set of guidelines for living one’s life (Fadiman&Frager, 1997; Wilkins, 1967), known as the Five Pillars of Islam :

1. Bearing Witness , or the Confession of Faith, to Allah and to his chosen

prophet Muhammad.

2. Daily Prayer , which occurs five times a day (dawn, noon, midafternoon,

dusk, and night).

3. Fasting , for those who are able, during the month of Ramadan (the ninth

month of the Muslim calendar).

4. Charity , or almsgiving, which involves giving one fourtieth (2½%) of one’s

accumulated wealth to the poor at the end of the month of Ramadan.

5. Pilgrimage to Mecca , once during the lifetime for those who are able and can

afford to do so.

Two elements seem to stand out from the Five Pillars. First, Islam requires an active demonstration of one’s faith in Allah. Second, every Muslim must follow through on that faith with good works, particularly the fasting during Ramadan and the giving of charity to the poor. Thus, neither faith nor good works alone are adequate for those who claim to be Muslim, they must incorporate both into their lives.