Taylor Darcy.com

I am taking a course during winter break titled “Sacred Texts” now I was lucky enough to take the class when it is talking about the Koran and Islam. I find this very interesting, except the text that they choose title, “The Vision of Islam” by Murata & Chittick is VERY confusing (either that or Islam it’s self is confusing, the jury is still out on this one). Now I have a background in religious studies as I have studied my religion all my life. I have even researched faiths other than my own. I am no expert but I am certainly not ignorant when it comes to God (unless you are reading the text in which case I am VERY ignorant). None-the-less I digress, I can certainly see the similarities to my faith although there are certain drastic differences. But I will leave that for another post.

As my post is titled it apparent after my research and reading that jihad or “holy war” is often misunderstood, frankly I misunderstand it a bit. For those of you who don’t know much about Islam or the Koran, there are actually two different types of jihad.  First would be Mujahada or the greater war. This war is characterized by an inner struggle or the war against sin if you will.  Jihad is the lesser struggle or war. It is more physical and less spiritual. I bring this up because I feel that a common misconception by people of other faiths is that Islam is all about the jihad, especially when it comes to non-believers or infidels. Which just for the record I think Hollywood makes it out worse than it is, after all a peaceful loving person wouldn’t be very good when it comes to a villain or nemesis would they? It would kind of defeat the purpose. None the less although I don’t agree with all of the teachings of Islam, they have some very valid points.  After all the meaning of Islam is submission to God, which in my opinion is a very good thing.  If more people submitted to the will of God there would be less evil in the world.   Based upong my preliminary readings and research most people of Islam are peaceful and wonderful people.  That isn’t to say that the extremists aren’t out there because they are evidenced by Osama bin Laden and the terrorist attacks on 9/11 but that is minority not the majority.

One of my criticisms with Islam is that the fact that they have no leadership to the church. Everyone interprets the Koran for themselves. Now this is both a strength and a weakness which when it is both it truly is neither. On the one hand when someone interprets the Koran entirely for themselves it can leave a lot to opinion and error. This means there is a lot of disagreement on subjects, which in turn means that the war within the ranks of Islam is frustrating to the members. It also means that without someone to at least “guide” an individual on the right path then how will they know when they progress (some would argue that it is only God who can accertain this but I think sometimes an inspired individual can help as well). I am not saying that leaders must be present to interpret every little thing; in fact I would discourage it. However, sometimes having a leader to correct a particular point of doctrine can help guide the members on a correct path. On the other hand when you have individuals interpreting texts completely on their own it gives them an opportunity to create a relationship with the text in which they are studying. It means that they will be closer to book and that their interpretations will be coherent (if unfortunately only to themselves). I thing this type of thing encourages faith, although it could be potentially misguided. The bond between the reader and the doctrine that they study will be extraordinary although incorrect tendencies could be perpetuated from one individual to another i.e. parent to child, etc. Please understand I wish that more people would read and study their particular religious text more fully. A lot of disagreements could be avoided if everyone would do their best to understand their own text before they go bashing others.

In conclusion over the next week or two I am going to be posting things about Islam. I will do my best to be fair to the religion as I would expect the same from others studying my church. Following that I will be discussing events and occurrences relating to my semester i.e. criminology and justice studies. Not only that but I am going to be taking a French class and a History class. All of which will be most riveting. Stay tuned for more!

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