Islam syllabus
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RE 215 Islam
Fall 2006 Course Hours: T/Th 12:40-2:00
Fall 2006 Office Hours: W 2:30-3:30
IMPORTANT AND TIMELY NOTICES FROM YOUR PROFESSOR
- Because I was sick last week and we did not complete the material properly in class, we'll continue on discussing Qur'an on Tuesday 9/19. Thank you.
- CLASS WILL NOW BE HELD IN EMERSON AUDITORIUM
Course Description
This course will be a survey of the religion of Islam using the “Hadith of Gabriel” as its organizing principle. This canonical hadith has long been used by Muslim scholars as a model for the education of the principles of Islamic religion. It divides Islam into three dimensions: submission (islam), faith (iman), and doing what is beautiful (ihsan). We will explore Islamic religious ideals, schools of Islamic learning, and historical and contemporary issues pertaining to each of the three dimensions. Historical chronologies and diverse cultural examples of Islamic life will be provided by the required texts and raised in the lectures using examples from Islamic civilization past and present.
Course Requirements
- Class participation 15%
- Hadith of Gabriel Quiz 10%
- 3 Terms Quizzes 15%
- 2 Papers 40%
- Take Home Final Exam 20%
Class Participation
Please click through to Class Participation to read about my expectations and how you will be graded on this section.
Quizzes
There will be two types of quizzes:
- The Quizes will be short identification questions on technical terminology introduced in the textbooks and clarified in class discussion. I will never ask you to define terms we have not discussed in class.
- The Hadith of Gabriel Quiz: Each student must memorize the Hadith of Gabriel well enough to
- retell its basic story and structure;
- define the major terms
- 1. islam, its five pillars, and its specialists
- 2. iman, the objects of faith and its specialists
- 3. ihsan, its perspective, and its specialists;
- explain the significance of the title;
- explain in one sentence only the relationship between the structure of the Hadith, the Syllabus, and the Vision of Islam textbook.
Papers
The papers will be 3 to 5 pages long. The topics are assigned in the syllabus. The papers will not require outside research.
Click through to read How I grade Papers
Click through to read Submitting Papers
Click through to read Paper Policy
Please speak to me if you do not understand anything you have read here on how I grade papers, submitting them, or my late paper policy. You are responsible for yourself. If you do not read these sections and you err in some way as a result, it is your fault. Speak to me or write me an e-mail if you have any questions. I am will be glad to hear from you.
Take Home Final Exam
There will be two essay questions for your take home exam. The first question is supplied on this syllabus. Click through to Islam Take Home Exam. The second question will be assigned at the end of the semester. Both questions will require you to pull together all the themes of the class and demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the material. Technical terms must be used and defined in your answers.
Required Texts
In the Bookstore
- Sachiko Murata and William C. Chittick, The Vision of Islam
- David Waines, An Introduction to Islam
Readings on Wiki Site
- Selections from the Qur’an translated by Arberry
- "The Hadith of Gabriel”
- Yahya b. Sharaf al-Din al-Nawawi, Forty Hadith, trans., E. Ibrahim and D. Johnson-Davies
- Daniel Abd al-Hayy Moore, selections from The Ramadan Sonnets
- Khaled Abou El Fadl, “The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly"
- Michael Muhammad Knight, “Bleeding for the Imam: Heartbreak and Catharsis in Muharram”
- Molly O’Neill, “The New Neighborhood Butcher in an Old-Fashioned Way”
Supplementary Readings
- Qur'an Resources This page has links to web sites that compare translations, websites with Qur'an recitations you can listen to, websites with classical Qur'an commentary, calligraphy and other creative responses to the Qur'an.
- Poetry by Muslims
- This page contains selections and links to poetry by contemporary Muslims.
- This page is an annotated selection of links to and pages on work being done by innovative and margin busting Muslims are, nevertheless, right within the transmitted tradition in their approaches.
Class Schedule
Introduction
9/7: Topic: Introduction to the class: “Hadith of Gabriel”
9/12: Topic: The Prophet and the Early Community
- Film: Part One of “Islam: Empire of Faith”
- Reading due: “The Constitution of Medina”
- Think about: What were you expecting to hear and see about Muhammad and the early community? Do you think this is an accurate interpretation? Why? Why not?
9/14: Topic: The Qur'an and Hadith: Foundations for Islamic Life
- Reading due: Selections from the Qur’an, Daniel Abd al-Hayy Moore, “Vocalization” from The Ramadan Sonnets
- Think about: What is the narrative style of the Qur’an? What points are being made? How is God described? What seems to be the proper relationship between God and human beings? What is Moore saying about different kinds of speech and how it affects the soul of the human being?
- Note: will listen to selections of Qur’an recitation in class today
- Listen: Chapter 55, the All Merciful
- Listen: MadVillain Strange Ways Listen to get an example of internal rhyming. Lyrics
9/19: Continue Qur'an from last class
9/21: Topic: The Qur'an and Hadith: Foundations for Islamic Life
- Reading due: Forty Hadith, read through ALL the hadith and look through the site Forty Hadith
- Think about: What is the purpose of the project of bringing together forty hadith? These forty were not brought together randomly, what do the subjects of the hadith tell you about what al-Nawawi was trying to do? What is surprising about the hadith? What does Nawawi’s project tell you about how he perceived Muhammad? Consider how the website continues Nawawi's project. What does the website tell you about how Muslims use hadith as a source of knowledge in every aspect of life.
9/26: Topic: Qur’an and Hadith as sources for the life of Muslims and Islamic Intellectual Tradition
- Reading due: I will give a lecture on the topic that will make use of what we have learned so far and prepare us for the work in the next section. Look through the following three websites. Each is from a different orientation within Sunni Islam (Salafi, Traditionalist, and Progressive). Just click around and see what kinds of things they have up, how they organize things, what kinds of issues are being considered. Look through websites such as the Salafi oriented site IslamWorld.net, the Traditionalist oriented site Zaytuna.org, and the Progressive Muslim webzine Muslim Wake up! and the site of the Progressive legal scholar and thinker Khaled Abou El Fadl.
9/28: *Terms and Hadith of Gabriel Quiz
The First Dimension: Submission or Works (islam) and Jurisprudence
10/3 Topic: The Five Pillars
- Reading due: Murata, chap. 1; Daniel Abd al-Hayy Moore, all selections from The Ramadan Sonnets
- Think about: Get a picture of how Moore feels about Ramadan and how he and his family experience it through his poems. You need to read the poems through a few times, and read them aloud to yourself.
10/5: Topic: The Five Pillars, cont.,
- Film: “The Hajj”
10/10 Topic: The Development of the Schools of Law and the Basics of Islamic Jurisprudence
- Reading due: Waines, chap. 3; Murata, chap 2 [this is about 4 pages long]; wine verses; Forty Hadith 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 20, 27, 30, 33
- Think about: If everyone agrees on the same sources, how is there so much difference of opinion in legal rulings taken from those sources? Shouldn’t the Law be obvious and simple?
- Supplementary Readings: Check out this essay Open Ijtihad by Ulises Ali Mejias on the relationship between open source software and interpretive religious traditions in Islam. I'd say he knows computers better than he knows Islamic jurisprudence, but the fact is that it is a stirring manifesto for an open, self-conscious, and ethical interpretative mode in Islam. I am particularly attracted to the comic book illustrations of his new heros, "The Ijtihackers." He practices what he preaches. Mejias just launched Open Islampedia a open-self-defining space for Muslims. He's got a dream that the community can work it out and that open source thinking is one of the ways we will do it. I'd agree.
10/12: Topic: The Development of the Schools of Law and the Basics of Islamic Jurisprudence
- No Reading, cont. of yesterday's discussion
10/17: Topic: The Basics of Islamic Jurisprudence, cont.: Terrorism
- Reading due: Khaled Abou El Fadl, “The Modern Ugly and the Ugly Modern”
- Think about: What does the author mean by “beautiful” and “ugly”? What is “Salafism”? What is “Wahhabism”? What is the ethical responsibility of every Muslim?
10/19: Topic: The Basics of Islamic Jurisprudence, cont.: Gender Jihad
- Reading due: The Progressive Muslim Union's Woman-led Prayer Initiative, Muslim Wake Up!'s Jumah Scrapbook, and the Wikipedia entry on Women Imams
- Think about: What are the arguments for and against woman-led prayer? What are the different perspectives and approaches of the supporters of the prayer? Who is concerned with the legal tradition? Who is not? Why? What is the “Woman-Friendly Mosques” document? Do a google search on “Women Imam” What was the effect of the prayer on the community in North America, globally? Why do you think any Muslim woman would oppose it?
Paper Topic for the First Paper
- Using your knowledge of the development of Islamic Jurisprudence, explain why Islamic jurisprudence is so flexible. You must give a succinct account of the basic points in Islamic jurisprudence that allow for so much difference of agreement to stand among Muslims. You are welcome to discuss the development of jurisprudence alone, use Terrorism or Gender Jihad as examples of contemporary engagement with traditional legal flexibility, or address the ethical responsibility of thinking critically about jurisprudence.
The Second Dimension: Faith (iman) and Theology
10/24: Topic: Introduction to iman
- Reading due: Waines, “Theology: Faith, Justice, and Last Things”
- Optional reading: Murata, chp. 6
- Think about: Pay particular attention to the dispute between Mu`tazilites and the Asharites. How does thinking the the Qur’an is either created (M) or eternal (A) affect how the Qur'an is used as a source for legal rulings or theological precepts? What are the different ways theologians use the term "rationality"?
10/24: First Paper Due
Tawhid
10/26: Topic: God
- Reading due: Murata, pgs. 35-84
- Think about: What do the different names or attributes of God tell you about who God is and what sorts of things human beings should expect from Him? How do the notions of “tanzih” and “tashbih” help you understand the names and attributes?
10/31: Topic: God and the Angels
- No reading due today
- Think about: How is the Islamic cosmos imagined? Who are the angels? Jinn? Human Beings? What are their roles? Who are they in relation to God? Think about how they embody the names and attributes of God? How do the names and the attributes show up in the created world?
11/2 Topic: God and the Angels cont.
11/7: Topic: The Measuring Out
- Reading due today: Murata, pgs. 84-104
- Think about: Here we begin our discussion of good and evil and free will and pre-destination. What is the difference between ethical and ontological good and evil? What are the Qur’anic terms for each? Given what we have learned so far about God’s names and attributes explain why ethical good and evil be characterized by the terms “beauty” and “ugliness.”
11/9: Topic: The Measuring Out cont.
- Reading due: Murata, pgs. 104-131
Prophecy
11/14: Topic: The Message of the Prophets
- Reading due: Murata, pgs. 132-192
- Think about: What is the role of God’s guidance in Prophecy? Is there such a thing as God’s misguidance? Who embodies that misguidance? Google for information on Muslim’s attitude towards other religions. What do you see? How do we reconcile Murata’s idealistic presentation from what we find Muslims saying on the web? Consequently, let’s discuss how we reconcile other Islamic ideals and historical realities? Your answer should take histories of interpretation into account.
The Return
11/16: Topic: The Stages of Life and Death and the Unfolding of the Soul
- Reading due: Murata, pgs. 193-235
- Think about: How the stages of death and the events of the next world correspond to what we have learned about the human relationship with God with respect to the Trust.
11/21: Class cancelled, I will be at the American Academy of Religion Conference
11/28: Terms Quiz/Second Paper Due
Paper Topic for the Second Paper
- Using a theological position we have discussed in class, write a commentary on a verse, verses, or the whole of “The Merciful” from the Qur’an. In the past, students have written deeply on one or several verses or analyzed the organization of the chapter itself as an expression of its goals. Keeping within the boundaries of Islamic orthodoxy as we have discussed them, feel free to explore theological questions of interest to you. If you would like to step outside the boundaries in your commentary, then you must first give a succinct account of the orthodox boundaries and why it is necessary to break out of them to make your point.
- Use electronic submission or drop papers off in my box in the office.
The Third Dimension: Doing Things Beautifully (ihsan) and Sufism and Piety
- Think about: What does it mean to do things beautifully? Review Abou El Fadl’s article from our section on Islamic jurisprudence and readings on ethical beauty.
11/30: Topic: Sufism and the Development of the Sufi Orders
- Reading due: Waines, “The Way of the Sufi”
- Think about: Focus on the establishment of authority, the distinct cultural and historical modes of Sufism, and basic Sufi concerns that correspond to our larger discussion of the Trust.
12/5: Topic: Practical Sufism
- Reading due: Sells, “Muhasibi”
- Think about: What are the techniques he suggests to purify one’s intention? How do you suppose they work? Think about this in the most obvious way. How do you examine your own conscience?
12/7: Topic: Dhikr Practices
- No reading
- Film and Music from Sufi gatherings
- Think about: Consider the important term “dhikr,” its relationship to the Trust, and how it is understood in terms of works, faith, and doing things beautifully.
Course End
12/12: Topic: Course Wrap Up
Click Islam Take Home Exam to read the final exam question.
