Saturday, April 19, 2014
Chapter 2
In chapter 2, Armstrong discusses the idea that Islam sees the Qu'ran as a message directly from God, and as such, experienced a something akin to transcendence each time they listened or read the Qu'ran. Unlike Christianity, Judaism also does this, with Hebrew being the sacred language of God. What I'm curious about, then, is why Islam decided revere in such a way. What I mean by this is that Islam came several hundred years after both Christianity and Judaism, and as far as we know, was influenced by both. It is quite clear, though, that Christianity reveres Jesus differently than Judaism does Moses or Islam does Muhammad. Jesus, to Christian, is literally god incarnate. At the same time, his sayings are not nearly as well documented, and the bible clearly follows a different path than either of the other holy books.With Judaism on one side and Christianity on the other, along with the significant impact of ancestral worship, why did Islam choose to emphasize the holy tongue like that of Hebrew, rather than the person or acts like Christianity?
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We talked a little bit in class about the idea of Islam as a religion specifically for Muhammad's people. I think that aspect of self-identity is a big part of it, personally. Judaism also has that problem of identity. Meanwhile, Jesus himself tried to break those barriers down in order to have true equality and justice, the "kingdom of God" we've spoken about. The differing attitudes toward language and its importance makes a lot of sense in that context to me.
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