Did You Know
That the Koran (Qur’an) doesn’t instruct Muslims to pray five time a day? The Islamic Holy Book explicitly mentions two prayers (early morning - 17:78 - and evening 30:17), implies a third (2:238), but doesn’t say anything about the two other prayers. Instead, the five prayers rule is explained by biographer of Mohammed, Ibn Ishaq (pronounced as Is-chaak). He wrote, more than 100 years after the prophet and founder of Islam had died, that Gabriel visited Mohammed and that he, Gabriel, told Mohammed about the prayers.
Did you, furthermore, know that Muslim women didn’t wear headscarfs let alone ‘hajibs’ until four generations after Mohammed died? Mohammed’s wives wore something of a veil, to distinguish them from the rest according to the tradition, but none of the other Islamic women wore it. They only started wearing it when they encountered very strict Christians whose women had to be veiled. So, one could say, Muslims imitated Christians they had come to know.
I do
It does seem that the elements of fundamentalist Islam that we’d consider misogynistic often stem from the tribal cultures of the Semitic world, no? Do you have any more details on the development of that (for instance, warring tribes taking over another, and treating the women as the spoils of war- as bounty, objects, etc?)
And I hope I’m not misusing the term "Semitic"- by that I’m not just referring to Jews but to the various tribes that were related to them which were the ancestors of today’s Arabs.
Before that was certainly the case. There’s little known about the Arab culture before Islam, sadly, but Islam teaches that there was a code of honor, that there was no legitimate authority and that the only way to respond to crime was ‘eye for an eye.’
This meant that the only way to be sure of your life was to be part of a tribe. If the tribe didn’t want you there anymore, everyone could rob and kill you (and if you’re a woman rape you). When someone stole something from a member of another tribe (in tribes you probably couldn’t do much mischief because if you did you would be expelled which would equal death) the other tribe had to take revenge by, for instance, beating that person up tremendously or killing him / her.
If the tribe didn’t it’s image would’ve been weakened and it would’ve been attacked constantly.
In this regard, it’s easier to understand the ‘unity’ of Muslims, the way they according to some protect each other, don’t criticize each other towards outsiders, etc. Or at least less than we would hope / expect. Mohammed basically created a new tribe: the Ummah - unity of Muslims.
The strength of Islam, of course, was that people of all tribes could join it.
"Semitic world" - yes you are correct. My girlfriend often says "that’s not Islam, that’s Arab culture" and the more I study this subject, the more I think she’s right. What happened, to a degree, was that some Arab Muslim leaders incorporated some ancient cultural habits and behaviors into the new system; obviously the needed religious backing for that, so they interpreted a Koran verse here differently, a Hadith there, etc.
Having said that, the tradition refers to the old days, before Islam, when it says "don’t dress up like" it was done in the Arab peninsula before Islam arrived. So that indicates that Arab women actually put on make-up, etc. before Islam, continued that after Mohammed came, however Islam taught it was not wise, and then 4 generations after Mohammed had past away, Muslims encountered very strict Christians who kept their wives at home and forced them to cover their faces and bodies completely and they imitated these Christians.
Obviously I’m not an expert, but the little reading that I’ve done has taught me a lot in this regard.
Fundamentalists: as I’ve said in the past, ‘moderate’ Muslims can actually fight extremists by looking at the Koran and the early years of Islam themselves. Obviously not by living like they did then to the letter, but to show ‘they say their Islam is pure, but Mohammed himself never did what they did and never said what they say.’
Fundamentalists can be fought on religious and humane grounds.
Arabs and Jews are both Semitic people and there were quite some Jews living in the Arab peninsula at the time.
Yes, that is what I thought but wanted to make sure that I had the semantics correct and that others would also understand that ‘Semite’ does not equal ‘Jew’.
So, do you agree that the tribalism contributed to development of these customs?
I love edumaction. Props for some good bits of knowledge and grounds for further research.
Yes.
Which is why Muslim nations that don’t have a tribal custom, or less of a tribal system, don’t have it.
If you look at Turkey, an intregal part of Atatürks ideology was "we’re not Christians, Muslims, Jews, Armenians, Kurds and Turks… we are Turks."
On the other hand, Kurds still live by the tribal way - with the ‘little tribe’ being the family; thus honor killings.
Michael,
The problem comes into place when arguing these with the fundamentalists is that over several hundred years, Hadith became as powerful as the Kur’an itself. The most important book in this respect is Al-Sahih. We need a Muslim scholar, to refute many elements in Al-Sahih on religious grounds. Many Muslim scholars living in Turkey and in the West have attempted this, but it doesn’t seem to carry any weight. Islam needs a leader similar to Luther and the protestant movement.
–Ilker
Comment inspired by a reader (e-mail): when I talk about the culture of eye for an eye, that’s what Islam teaches about the pre-Islamic culture and system. It’s called Jahiliyya in Islam. In other words, I did not say that this is what Mohammed taught. Instead, he broke with it - to a large degree. After his death, however, it continued to influence Arab societies.
Just so that’s clear.