Tag: Islam
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Lailat al Miraj
I am not usually clued in to this holiday, or more literally holy day, in the Muslim calendar, but for some reason this year I noticed it when it popped up on my phone. Al Isra and al Miraj are the Night Journey and the Ascent, the occasion of Muhammad’s miraculous journey to Jerusalem, and […]
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Muharram / Al-Hijra
The month of Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar, reckoned from the date of the Hijra, Muhammad’s arrival in Yathrib – Medina – to establish the Muslim community in exile from Mecca. Not exactly a holiday, but a milestone, and an invitation to ponder the significance of that historical event. Image: Ceramic […]
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Hajj Like No Other
2020 has been a challenging year for religious observance. The Hajj starts today – and from this account, the pilgrimage will be very different from usual. Of course, many pilgrims who’d hoped to be making the trip won’t be, at least not this year. For the few who can, Zamzam water in plastic bottles and […]
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Ramadan Like No Other
Passover like no other, Easter like no other, and now Ramadan like no other. This year, the “children of Abraham” have even more grounds for solidarity than usual. Ramadan Mubarak to my Muslim friends, teachers, and students, and may you be, and stay, well. A meditation on Ramadan 2020 by Dr. Riffat Hassan Al-Jazeera on […]
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Why Do They … ?
Today in class, which was on Islam, one of my students said I have a question. Why do they always have to have their own stores? … Like, when you are in Meijer, and you see someone who look like Muslims buying lots and lots of soda, are they taking that back to their own […]
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Not the Best Argument Against Abrahamicism
Hughes, Aaron W. Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History. Oxford University Press, 2012. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] I agreed with this book as soon as I heard about it. According to the description on the website, the author, Aaron W. Hughes, argues that the notion of the “Abrahamic religions” […]
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The Sharia as Utopian Discourse?
In the interests of continuing education, I’m taking a class on Sharia and Islamic Law. So far, so fascinating. This explains how I came to read Rumee Ahmed’s Sharia Compliant: A User’s Guide to Hacking Islamic Law (Stanford University Press, 2019), or rather, the introduction and the first chapter of that book. Except that now […]
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A Journey to the Heart
Carla Power. If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Qur’an. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2015. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project] If the Oceans Were Ink ended up on the Read Me shelf because it was an accessible book about Islam, in particular […]
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On One of the Islams
Robert Day McAmis. Malay Muslims: The History and Challenge of Resurgent Islam in Malay Southeast Asia. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion (Genesis 22 1-14)
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, March 4 is Genesis 22:1-14. Here are a few questions that we might want to consider in class: Why does Abraham do what God asks of him, do we think? Is it because of what God has promised him in preceding chapters – so, for personal gain, or posthumous […]
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Just Wondering
What could the idea of being “famous” have meant to the people who decide to build a city with a tower in Genesis 11:4? For us, being “famous” more or less means being known by lots of people, widely dispersed. But according to the way the story is told, the people of the time are […]
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Against “Proof-texting” in the Qur’an
Chapter 3 of Qur’an in Conversation begins with Jamal Badawi’s discussion of the factors affecting the interpretation of “one of the most misunderstood verses of the Qur’an”(78) 9:5, “Kill the idolaters [mushrikin] wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, lie in wait for them at every place of ambush.” Badawi uses the verse as […]
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Close Reading in the Qur’an
Notes on Chapter 2 (“Close Readings, Old and New”) of Michael Birkel, ed. Qur’an in Conversation (Waco, TX: Baylor UP, 2014) 33-35.] Mohammad Hassan Khalil unpacks the meaning of the opening line of the Qur’an, the bismillah, rendered into English in various ways, such as “In the name of God, the all-compassionate, the all-merciful.” He […]
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Hidden Knowledge in the Qur’an
Chapter 1 of Qur’an in Conversation (Michael Birkel, ed.) focuses on the theme of “hidden knowledge” or “hidden meaning” in three significant texts: al-Fatihah (the Opening, sura one, which is recited as part of all five of the daily prayers, so it’s at least as familiar in a Muslim context as the Lord’s Prayer is […]
Matters of Interpretation 