ISLAM
Judaism
| Christianity
What were the most significant events in the history of the
religion?
by John Kaltner
Key
episodes of Muhammad’s life are recalled and celebrated by
Muslims as important moments in the history of their community.
According to Islamic tradition he began to receive the revelations
that eventually came to comprise the Qur’an during the month
of Ramadan in the year 610. The “Night of Power,” which
commemorates that event, is one of the holiest times of the Muslim
calendar and is celebrated with great solemnity every year during
the month of fasting. There is a difference of opinion regarding
exactly what day of the month the revelations commenced, but most
place it somewhere during the last ten days of Ramadan.
Muslims
consider the hijra, the journey from Mecca to Medina that
Muhammad made with a small group of followers, to be the most significant
event in the early history of Islam. It was this
change of location that allowed the nascent Muslim community to
survive and develop into the influential religion it has become.
The journey is so highly regarded that it was taken as the founding
experience of the ummah that gave birth to Islam. For this
reason, the year 622 is considered to be the start of the Muslim
calendar, which is now in the first half of the fifteenth century.
Islam
uses a lunar calendar, which is a bit shorter than the solar one
found in the West, so one cannot determine the year of the Muslim
calendar simply by deducting 622 from its western counterpart. Dates
in the Muslim calendar are often written with the initials AH after
them, which is an abbreviation of the Latin term anno hegirae,
“in the year of the hijra.”
Another
celebrated event of the prophet’s life has its basis in Qur’an
17:1, which speaks of God transporting “His servant from the
sacred mosque to the furthest mosque.” Muslim interpretations
have understood this passage to be a reference to Muhammad and a
miraculous night journey he made from Mecca (the location of the
“sacred mosque”) to Jerusalem, where the “furthest
mosque” (al-aqsa in Arabic) is found. According to
this tradition, Muhammad was then taken up through the various levels
of heaven, where he was welcomed and honored by many of the great
prophets of the past. This event has been frequently depicted in
art, and some Muslims mystics, or Sufis, have understood it to be
a metaphor of the soul’s journey to God.
Muhammad’s
birth and death have sometimes been celebrated by Muslims, but this
practice has never caught on in the community as a whole. In fact,
in some periods and places Muslims have been forbidden from commemorating
the beginning and end of the prophet’s life. This prohibition
is often expressed in theological terms—Muhammad was only
a man like all of the prophets, and so he deserves no special treatment
or recognition. Some Muslim thinkers have voiced concern that such
observances run the risk of divinizing Muhammad in a way similar
to what has happened with Jesus in Christian celebrations of his
birth and death at Christmas and Easter.
A very
important moment in Shi`a history occurred in 680, when Ali’s
son Husayn was killed by Sunni forces at a place called Karbala
in modern-day Iraq. Husayn and his followers were on their way to
Damascus to claim the leadership of the Muslim community that they
believed was rightfully his when they were attacked and brutally
slain by their enemies. This tragic event is recalled each year
by Shi`a Muslims, who mourn the martyrdom of Husayn and reenact
the circumstances of his death in a ritual passion play known as
the ta`ziya.
The
classical period of Islam came to an end in 1258, when Mongols invaded
from the East and captured the city of Baghdad, which had served
as the capital of the Muslim empire throughout the Abassid Period
(750-1258). This was a significant event not just because it signaled
the official end of the caliphate form of government that had begun
with the death of Muhammad in 632. It also began a process of debate
over who can legitimately rule Muslims. The Mongols converted to
Islam, but because they were outsiders some believed they were unfit
to govern the ummah. This is an issue that has continued
to be discussed in the modern day because some Muslim extremists,
like Usama bin Laden, maintain they have the right to oust from
office those leaders they deem to be not “Muslim” enough.
In
modern times, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a watershed event
for many Muslims. Under the leadership of
Ayatollah Khomeini the people of Iran were able to overthrow the
Shah, a longtime ally of the United States who had relegated Islam
to a marginal role in society. This marked the first
time an Islamic regime had been able to replace a more secular form
of government, a development that gave much hope to those who think
this model should be adopted throughout the Muslim world. More than
a quarter-century later, the Islamic Republic of Iran still plays
a pivotal role in the international community.
Copyright
©2006 John Kaltner
John
Kaltner is a member of the Department of Religious Studies
at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee where he teaches courses
in Bible, Islam, and Arabic. Among his books are Islam:
What Non-Muslims Should Know (2003); Inquiring
of Joseph: Getting to Know a Biblical Character through the Qu’ran
(2003); Ishmael
Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qur’an for Bible Readers
(Collegeville: Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 1999).
Excerpts
from What Do Our Neighbors Believe?: Questions and Answers on
Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Howard Greenstein, Kendra
Hotz, and John Kaltner are used by permission from Westminster John
Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. The book will be available for
purchase in December 2006.
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