A landscape in Arabia\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a passage from the chapter of our principal textbook that I discussed with my \u201cIntroduction to the Religion of Islam\u201d class late on Thursday afternoon:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom its origins, Islam has been closely identified with settled forms of social and economic life, in both the town and the city. \u00a0The romantic and Western associations of Bedouin of the desert and a monotheism born from meditation in vast expanses under a brilliant sky are far from the facts. . . . \u00a0Muslims have always preferred to live where people gather together for worship.\u201d \u00a0(Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam<\/em>, 4th ed. [Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011], 290)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
As it happens, Professor Denny\u2019s point (with which I wholeheartedly agree), dovetails very nicely with a couple of passages that I had discussed in the Thursday morning meeting of my class on the Qur\u2019an in English translation, for which we use M.A.S. Abdel Haleem\u2019s rendition in the Oxford World\u2019s Classics series:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe desert Arabs who stayed behind will say to you, \u2018We were busy with our property and our families: ask forgiveness for us,\u2019 but they say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. . . . \u00a0Tell the desert Arabs who stayed behind, \u2018You will be called to face a people of great might in war and to fight them, unless they surrender: if you obey, God will reward you well, but if you turn away, as you have done before, He will punish you heavily.\u201d \u00a0(Qur\u2019an 48:11, 16)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe desert Arabs say, \u2018We have faith.\u2019 \u00a0[Prophet], tell them, \u2018You do not have faith. \u00a0What you should say instead is, \u201cWe have submitted,\u201d for faith has not yet entered your hearts.'\u201d \u00a0(Qur\u2019an 49:14)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Islam arose in the seventh-century Arabian cities \u2014 towns, at least \u2014 of Mecca (or Makka) and Yathrib. \u00a0(The name Yathrib<\/em> is now essentially forgotten except as a matter of historical interest, having been replaced by Madinat al-Nabi<\/em> [\u201cThe City of the Prophet\u201d], al-Madina al-Munawwara<\/em>\u00a0[\u201cThe Illuminated City\u201d], or, simply and much more commonly, al-Madina<\/em>\u00a0[Madina<\/em>, Medina<\/em>, \u201cThe City\u201d]). \u00a0It was \u2014 and, as I intend to illustrate, this is quite obvious from the text of the Qur\u2019an \u2014 a message that originally emerged among the population of a mercantile town and that was phrased in terms that would make sense to such a population.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The townspeople respected the nomadic Bedouin Arabs in very important ways, but the earliest Muslims mistrusted their commitment to Islam. \u00a0The notion that Islamic monotheism was inspired by a Bedouin environment, with its stark contrast of the all-powerful Sun to the simplicity of endless sand dunes and an overarching deep blue sky, simply can\u2019t withstand historical scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a passage from the chapter of our principal textbook that I discussed with my \u201cIntroduction to the Religion of Islam\u201d class late on Thursday afternoon: \u00a0 \u201cFrom its origins, Islam has been closely identified with settled forms of social and economic life, in both the town and the city. \u00a0The romantic and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2328,6690,6678,6681,66,6687,5373,6693,6699,6702,6684,6696,6705],"class_list":["post-80214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arabs","tag-bedouin","tag-city","tag-desert","tag-islam","tag-mecca","tag-medina","tag-nomad","tag-rural","tag-settled","tag-town","tag-urban","tag-wilderness"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>