GHS208-01 Spring 2020 China and the Islamic Middle East

This post is about the readings from “How to Perform Salah” and the “Haji” articles.

Prior to my first ICR service day, I was invited to a Salah service at the Nur-Allah center to meet the people I would be helping. Coming from a Catholic background growing up, I was interested in seeing how different an Isalmic prayer would be then a general Catholic mass service. I got to participate as much as I could, until the fellow Muslims started speaking Arabic, which then I was told to watch from the back because only people who can speak Arabic can complete the Salah. I didn’t realize how important the Quran is when praying because during a Catholic mass, it’s not mandatory to remember scripture. During the Salah, everyone must recite the beginning chapter of the Quran and any other chapter to complete the Salah. From watching the Salah take place, I was confused as to why everyone was standing up, then sitting down, then standing back up, and this endless cycle never stopped until the end. From the article, I learned that after reciting the Quran, everyone bows in a position called the Rukoo, then stands up saying an Arabic phrase which means “Allah hears those who praise Him”, and then prostrate on the floor saying “Allahu Akbar.” I didn’t realize it when in person, but according to the article, there can be four Salah prayers during one service. Eventually once the last Salah had ended, everyone got up and gave peace and mercy to everyone. It was really interested because I’ve never be a part of a different religious ceremony outside of my religion before. It was also interested to see that all the men pray on one side of the room, while all the women pray on the exact opposite side of the room. Wudu was a term I learned from Sister Carol at the Nur-Allah center when I asked her what does wiping the face with the hands represent. She said that if symbolizes cleansing the face and body to have a clean body and soul before praying.

The next article talks about the steps to complete the last of the five pillars. On the first day, Muslims enter Ihram, which is a pilgrim’s sacred state when crossing the boundaries of Mecca. Once in Mecca, they travel to Mina, which is about a 5 mile journey. Once there, the Muslims spend time praying and focusing on Allah. On the second day, they leave Mina and head towards Arafat. Arafat is where Muhammad’s last sermon took place and is about 9 miles from Mina. This is a special day of the Islamic calendar and many Muslims choose to fast on this day. After sunset, the Muslims travel to Muzdalifah to collect pebbles for the next day’s events. They leave this place just before sunrise. On the third day, this is considered the longest and most dangerous day of the five day pilgrimage. Once they returned to Mina, they throw seven pebbles at the largest of the three columns known as the Jamart, which ritual is called the first rami. This event symbolizes the stoning of the devil. After throwing the pebbles, the Muslims must perform a sacrifice similar to the one that Abraham did when sacrificing his son. The pilgrims sacrifice some animal, usually a sheep, goat, or cow. The men will then shave their hair and remove their ihram clothes. Many will end the day by circling the Kaaba seven times and finish by walking seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwa. The last two days deal with the pilgrims still throwing the pebbles, but this time at all three of the pillars. They spend the next two days in Mina and finish the pilgrimage by returning to Mecca and perform the final circulation of the Kaaba. After reading this article, I didn’t know how much energy is taken into this pilgrimage. They travel to many places over a five day period and pray to Allah most of that time. This is definitely more sacred than anything I’ve ever done as a Catholic. I can see why this is the last pillar and why it only has to be completed once.

After watching the crash course on Islam, the Quran, and the five pillars, I took some notes on what I learned.

Islam: Muslims believed that God sent Muhammad as the final prophet to bring people back to the one true religion, which involved the worship to a single, omnipotent God. Besides the Quran, another important text is the Hadith, which is a collection and sayings of the prophets. The body of laws in Islam is called the Sharia, but not all Muslims follow this body of laws. The people who did follow the Sharia were called Muslims because they submitted to the will of God. These Muslims became a community of believers called the Umma. Muhammad and his following believe in the one God, which upset the Quraysh, the most powerful tribe in Mecca. Muhammad was eventually forced to Medina, which the journey is called the Hijra. Muhammad and his followers returned to Mecca and the Islamic community took back Mecca. Once Muhammad died, the Quran was complete since Muhammad was the last prophet of God. Eventually, with Islam being a powerful religiously and politically, there needed to be a new leader, which ended up being Muhammad’s father in law. Abu Bakr began recording the Quran in writing and helped improve their military. This allowed the Islam community to increase rapidly over northern Africa and western Asia.

Quran: The Quran is very similar as the Bible by mentioning the story of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. However, it’s different based on the written record of the revelations Muhammad received. The Quran is written in the point of view of God, the actual word of God rather than viewpoints from miscellaneous prophets. Themes of the Quran include strict monotheism and the importance of taking care of those less fortunate of you.

Pillars: First pillar is the shahada, also known as the profession of the faith. This pillar acknowledges the one and only God in Islam. Second pillar is the salat, which is the ritual prayer five times a day- dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and late evening. Third is sawm, the month long fast during the month of Ramadan. Muslims can’t eat or drink during daylight hours when participating in the sawm. Fourth is Zakat, aka almsgiving, where non-poor Muslims are required to give a percentage of their income to the poor. Lastly is the Haji, which is the pilgrimage to Mecca, which Muslims must complete once during their life.

It was very interesting to learn about how Islam started given that the main religions in the western hemisphere involve some type of Christianity. It was also cool to learn similarities and differences between the Quran and the Bible. I have heard about the five pillars before this course, but didn’t really understand what that entailed. This video was entertaining to me because I learned a lot of new things.

Katie, my best friend from home, has coronavirus. I never thought that someone so close to me would end up getting the virus. Even though she is young and healthy, her family is scared that they are going to get it. She went to the doctor today and they would not even test her because she is young and they don’t have many tests. Without testing her they diagnosed her with the virus due to her having all of the symptoms. Her illness developed in pneumonia and she is having trouble breathing. She said that when she coughs it feels like she might throw up. As she has told me the severity of the illness, I understand why we must take these measures. 

Hearing her experience has made me question how the rest of this virus will play out. China and South Korea stopped the virus relatively quickly, testing many individuals. In addition the country’s blocked off areas of travel, containing the virus as best as they could. Even though Trump claims that everyone here can get tested, that statement proves to be false. Since our country has now surpassed the number of cases in China, I question if we will take any more big steps to stop the spread. Since our president wants this to end quickly, I am concerned that we will continue down this negative path if the country does not follow China and South Korea’s intense measures.

The article on practicing salah was very helpful and thorough but included some technical prayers and terminology that were a little more difficult to understand. Even though Muslims who have not yet gone through puberty are not required to partake in salah, I began to wonder how children were involved in learning salah and when children were encouraged to practice.

I found videos on YouTube that were designed to teach children about salah. The first video was a Muslim father narrating a cartoon video about encouraging his children to engage in prayer time. Although he explains his approach comically, which provides entertainment for me as the viewer, he explains how he wants his children to engage in the practice when they are serious about prayer. He explains how prayer is important for him and wants it to be important for his children as well. However, as he puts it, sometimes children are more occupied in playing with legos than wanting to engage in prayer time. He mentions a good age to start learning about salah is seven or eight.

The second video I watched was an animated show for Muslim children. It appeared to be similar to a show like Peppa Pig. This video showed a young boy practicing the prayer in his bedroom and narrating his actions. The explanation of his actions, thoughts, and speech were much simpler to understand than the article we read about salah. He was explaining his actions in a simple and understandable manner, which was easier to understand than the videos we watched of adults practicing Muslim prayer. Once again, he emphasized the importance of practicing prayer and honoring “the Master.”

Sometimes it is beneficial to try to learn something new through the lens of a child because of the naivety and open mind he/she approaches the learning opportunity with. Although these videos were designed for children, it helped me understand the practice of the prayer. It also helped me understand the importance of the prayer for Muslims and how parents want to instill this value in their children.

Through much of my 7th-grade experience, in history class, our main learning was about the creation of Islam, and I especially had a research paper and presentation on the Kaaba. It is very intriguing to see how it affects people’s lives in such a positive way. The Kaaba contains many beliefs of divinity like “Hubal, the Syrian god of the moon; al-Uzza, the powerful goddess the Egyptians knew as Isis and the Greeks called Aphrodite; al-Kutba, the Nabataean god of writing and divination; Jesus, the incarnate God of the Christians, and his holy mother, Mary” (Aslan, 18). I had learned that there are nearly three hundred idols in the Kaaba creating one of the most sacred spaces for mankind.

Another Interesting piece I read was about the relationship between the Arabs and the Jewish community. It stated that “the relationship between the Jews and the pagan Arabs was symbiotic in that not only was he Jews heavily Arabized, but the Arabs were also significantly influenced by Jewish beliefs and practices” (Aslan, 21). This is fascinating to read because that is not how that is viewed today. Arabs and the Jewish community might have some of the largest disagreements and feuds in the world. It is seen, and I still believe today that much of the violence and war in the world stemmed and stems from religious beliefs. It is also interesting to see how the rise of so many religions came to be, especially with the rise of Christianity. It is known that many people went on missionary work to convert other people to Christianity and other religions like Judaism did not do as much missionary work. However, Christians were very divided over their theological issues about the nature of Jesus Christ, especially in Syria and Yemen.

Lastly, they discussed the early life of Mohammed about how his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his uncle. One of the passages that stood out most was when he was nine years old, a monk told everyone that he was “the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds”. Soon after that, Mohammed was viewed as a prophet. Overall, it is fascinating how the Kaaba shares many tales and stories of many religious happenings as well as how symbolic it is, especially in the desert.

After reading through the Hadith selections for this week I decided to read further into the idea about its credibility that was presented on the Canvas home page. There are many sources online that bring forward questions and criticism about the Hadith. The main criticism toward the readings is about the way that they were collected. For example, I found an article listed on the website for Al-Mawrid , a “foundation for Islamic research and education.” The article argues that the Hadith is contributed to Muhammad yet not found in the Quran, which is supposed to reflect Muhammad’s method.

The article also focuses on the reliability of the transmitters of the Hadith along with their methods and motives. The author writes “I am not sure how the author can so conveniently and in so much detail determine the motivations and detailed conspiracy plans of a person who lived more than 1200 years ago.” and brings up the fact that the Hadith author could have simply expressed what they thought was problematic from the original collection.

Although the article argues against the validity of the Hadith it also says that no that “other than the Qur’an, no other Islamic text is 100% reliable”.

From the selected readings for this week I found Hadith 31 to be particularly interesting. It reads as follows:

“Khansā’ reported,

Her father gave her away in marriage, and she was a thayyib, and she did not like it. So she came to the Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, and he annulled her marriage.”

This was intriguing to be due to the fact that most ancient cultures would have been perfectly fine with a father giving away his daughter for marriage . In fact, as we learned earlier in the semester, that was the norm in some cultures. For the readings about Muhammad himself to argue that this ideology would in-fact be wrong was thought provoking for me. It seems as you go further back into history the rights for women diminish further and further but many instances in the Hadith argued for the opposite of that.

I decided to expand further upon my earlier post about the influence that Islamic law can have on athletes and sports fans. I read further about this topic and found the story of Jawahir Roble, a former Somali refugee who eventually became England’s first female Muslim football referee. I am a journalism major who loves sharing stories, so I wanted to share Jawahir’s inspiring story while commenting on the topic. Her story was featured in The Gaurdian, a British publication, last June during the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

If you read the piece it talks about her struggle that began when she was playing soccer with potatoes to old newspapers against a backdrop of gunshots in her home country. Not only did she have to overcome her worn-torn Somalian home she also broke through barriers rooted in Islamic culture. Many Muslim women have been prevented or not able to participate in sports and Robles family wanted her to focus on her studies instead of soccer.

Roble has overcome so much in her life. Her story is an inspiring one that I feel like is relevant during our current crisis. If she can overcome all that she has been through then I am certain the COVID-19 crisis is an obstacle that all of us can get through.

One of my biggest passions is watching and following sports so I decided to see what kind of relationship Islam has with sports. I found out through reading online that there has been a wide debate over whether Muslims should be allowed to play sports in the eyes of Islamic law. The way that some sports fans, like myself, obsess over teams and athletes can be a conflicting concept for strict Muslims according to uhmmasports.net. The site says that be a sports fanatic could be “distracting to what should be one’s purpose of submitting to the will of Allah” and that “many sports fans become so obsessive that it distracts their focus and brings out the worst in them.” Although I view sports as a deep escape from daily life, this idea does seem to make a lot of sense. Athletes are often seen as “god-like” and that could take away from the “true purpose” that is described in the Quran.

But that also conflicts with the idea that Allah wants people to have sound bodies to go with sound minds and sound morals. The site says that a Muslim who is in shape is better equipped to perform the duties of Islam.” From what I’ve read these to ideas have clashed and led to widespread debate.

I am disappointed that I will not be able to fulfill my ICR through attendance at the live ESL classes I was helping with through the Washington Township adult learning program. However, I am able to tutor students over the phone instead. Today, I arranged textbook materials for students, prepped a short lesson that I would conduct over the phone, and called a small group of students to conduct a conference call style ESL class. The chapter we covered was about the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. The students were more advanced than the class I was placed in before. Two students were in preparation to take the U.S. Citizenship exam.

When I connected with my site to see if there were virtual volunteer opportunities, I was worried about the students’ abilities to receive instruction without being face-to-face. The language barrier is sometimes very difficult to overcome. The nonverbal communication that is possible in-person is impossible to convey over the phone. Sometimes this nonverbal communication as well as the physical benefits of demonstration during teachings helps students overcome misunderstandings and obstacles. However, the students I worked with over the phone were higher level English speakers than the Level 1 and 2 students I worked with at the school. This made conducting the instruction over the phone more manageable. I still needed to speak slowly and repeat myself occasionally, but students understood the lesson most of the time. This demonstrates the progression of learning a language. In the beginning, it is very difficult, and many resources are needed to help learn. However, once some of the major obstacles are overcome, then it becomes easier to learn more of the language and less teaching tools are needed. I was very impressed by the progression the students had made during the lesson. I was impressed by the fact that just a few months ago the students were all in the Level 1 English class. In our lesson, we were able to focus more on conceptual learning than basic vocabulary work. In our discussion about the American flag, students were able to share history and background for the flags of their native countries. This helped me appreciate other cultures and understand how they too are constantly changing. We were able to discuss the pandemic and talk about how different family members were doing with the pandemic issue and how it was being handled in each of the student’s home country. Once again, this helped me understand how the world is connected, but that every culture is unique as well. This holds true for the way each country is handling the pandemic. It is unfortunate that something like COVID-19 is what connects countries across the globe, but it was engaging to have the discussion with students from across the globe about their perceptions and experiences throughout this current issue.

As I mentioned, I was nervous about helping over the phone. I was concerned that my teaching would not be effective over the phone or instruction via the phone would not be a sufficient way to deliver material to English language learners. However, through perseverance and problem-solving, I was able to develop a lesson plan that the students understood and engaged in. We enjoyed discussion about current events as well as practiced important material, which we did effectively in a virtual manner. Although I miss the opportunity of helping in the live Level 1 and 2 English class, I look forward to connecting with the students over the phone next week.