Bestaan: verdieping Islam

Nadat ik in het bestaan gevorderd ben met de voorzichtige conclusie dat het mij logisch lijkt dat God bestaat is de volgende vraag hoe deze God er dan uit ziet. Dat bracht me op het pad van de religie. Ik heb een korte inleiding in de Islam gelezen om me daar wat in te verdiepen.

ISLAM 

A very short introduction Mailise Ruthven

Dit boek las ik in het Engels vandaar dat het verslag ook in het Engels is.

For me the book was a first acquintance with Islam and very usefull. Ruthven writes in a way that it is also understandable for an outsider like me. Most interesting for me were the following parts/items:

. Main differences between christianity and Islam as described:

   . The sin plays a big role in christianity. Adam committed the first sin and redemption was necessary and that’s were Christ comes in. In the Islam this sin was forgiven easily and no redemption was needed so also no Christ was needed. Adam became the partner of God to rule the earth. This leads to the next two differences.

   . In the Islam God is one. So no Trinity is needed. That is a complex christian dogma which took several 100 years to develop. 

   . In Christianity men are seen as sinful while in the Islam there is much more optimism on mankind. So checks and balances are less important for Islam which leads to less importance on independant institutes and separation of church and state. 

  .  God stopped with revelations after Mohammed died according to the Sunni, the Sjii believe that God still works but only to the spiritual leaders. In christianity the God via the Holy Spirit leads every believer.

  .  There is no authority in the Islam above all parties like for instance the pope or synod in many non catholic churches. This implies that development of religious dogmas is difficult in the Islam since there are a lot of individual teachers. Combines with the stopped recelations this works strongly for conservatism in Islam. 

. What to think of the agression of the Islam religion. Mohammed conquers Mekka and is founder of the caliphate. Since then the Islam was quite peacefull expanding via trade contacts. As colonalism came the agression increased since Moslims have a different view on how to govern a country.  But classical Islam assumes that Islam will, conquer in the end (like Mohammed did). The extreme minorities like Al Qaeda promote return to the caliphate if needed with lots of violence. 

Fortunately there are movements in the Islam. For instance on the treatment of women what states that the interpretation of the Quran is done by men and that the principles should prevail not the rules which are strongly time related. Further education is promoted by some critics and personal responsibility. 

The writer sees the influence of extreme minorities increase but they do not get a real foot hold in the Islamitic countries. But he expects that the pietic and mystic traditions have a promise for the future. Religion will become more private and internalized due to individualism were all nations will be influenced with. But he also sees an entrenchment of violence for the time being. 

For me it was an eye opener to understand more of the Islam. The basic agression frightens me but I am glad that there is hope that forces like individualism following internationalisation will mitigate this and will hopefully transform Islam to a personal internal belief. 

This study also helps me to understand that there a more basic assumptions possible regarding religion and the way you see God and men.