Jordanians, Romans, and Nabataeans

We went to Jordan last week and had a grand time there. The people there loved us. They had a cheery attitude for the most part. I hope they come to a better agreement with Israel. The people hate Israel. We met some BYU students studying in Jordan. They said that the people say, "the Muslims have the truth. The Christians have most of the truth, they have just a few things wrong. And the Jews, they are evil." I can't really say I blame the Jordanians, considering their history with Israel. Maybe I will write all about that someday.

Petra exceeded all expectations. The Nabataeans built Petra between 300 BC and 100 AD. They controlled the trade routes between Rome and India and Egypt. They accumulated a lot of wealth from this trade. They had no slaves and had incredible systems for gathering water. You could see the open water channels and clay pipes that they used to gather water. We walked through a natural opening in the canyon and the treasury opened up before us. Indiana Jones found the holy grail there.

To be continued...

Eilat

We had very high expectations before going to Eilat. Every single one of the students opted to go. We had a blast. Some people saw lion fish. I saw a stingray and lots of big rainbowy fish. The beach felt amazing. It felt like a politically tumultuous version of Hawaii. I tried to get into the Hiatt hotel, but they made it difficult. The girls all went shopping. I took lots of pictures because my parents asked me too. I bought an underwater camera and a t-shirt. The t-shirt has a shark on it, but we did not see any.

On the way back, we stopped at the dead sea for a potty break. We went to bathrooms to potty, not the dead sea. We went during Sukhot, the Jewish holiday, and we saw lots of people at the dead sea camping. A couple of local young men walked into our bus. I got a little worried, so I went in. They were standing in the front of the bus talking to some girls just as cool as clams. I didn't realize before I went in that there were only girls on the bus. They backed off when I came up, but they didn't leave. Professor Ludlow walked in behind me and they left fast. I felt like a hero, but kind of a lame one.

Hezekiah and Today

We went to Hezekiah's tunnel. Hezekiah had it built in the 8th century BC. It brings the water from the Gihon spring into the city and feeds the pool of Shiloam. They found the pool just a few years ago. Jesus taught there. John 7-9 (maybe) is a sermon he gave while at the pool of Shiloam during Sukhot (sp?). Right now, the jews are celebrating Sukhot, so that is pretty cool. It used to be a pretty big deal. The tunnel is full of water and I sloshed through it in my bare feet. I am still wet. It was a blast. I might go again sometime before I leave.

Today, we went to the separation wall. It was interesting and depressing. Our Arabic teacher asked us what we thought and we said it was interesting and educational. He responded, "It is horrible." He said there are 20 year old men who have never left their small city and cannot leave. For some, it is a very large prison. Our guide, a famous Israeli political advisor is against the wall, but said that it has decreased suicide bombings. They need to start talking about peace.

Love,

Scott

Origins of Islam Essay

My father suggested I post my essays. Don't feel obligated to read them, but if you are interested, feel free.

Islamic Doctrine and Conflicting Contemporary Practices

Although polytheistic traditions in the Arabian Peninsula influenced Islam greatly, monotheistic doctrines formed much of the basis for the new religion (Berkey 71). As Berkey eloquently stated, “Islam itself from the beginning represented a close if problematic fusion of political and religious authority, in which condition it once again constituted less a rupture with the Christian Roman past than… an opportunity, as it were, to do Constantine one better.” (42) Islam assimilated and enhanced more than a unified political-religious authority. The five pillars of Islam, specifically the Shahadah, the Hajj, and the Zakat alter the doctrine of practices that existed in the Arabian Peninsula prior to the emergence of Islam in an attempt to improve conditions of the lower class and unify the Arab people. The Shahadah defines the nature of God in response to considerable confusion surrounding the topic, the Hajj introduces needed restrictions on the pilgrimage to Mecca, and the Zakat restructures the distribution of wealth.

Although obviously reforming the common practice of polytheism, this passage of the Koran illustrates that the Shahadah responds at least in part to the confusion surrounding the nature of the figure of Jesus Christ: “It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, "Be", and it is” (Qur’an 19:35). This verse or “aya” (Chittick 97) directly responds to the Christian concept of Jesus of Nazareth. In addition, the meaning of the word Shahadah and its use in the Koran have direct comparisons to the Christian doctrine of accepting Christ as your savior. According to Murata and Chittick, Shahadah means “to testify” or “to bear witness” and the Koran often uses the term to denote “the sense of giving witness” (113). The Shahadah, while parallel to declaring Christ as the savior, follows the same theme as the passage above and directly contradicts the Christian notion of Jesus and declares “There is no god but God” (113). Debate over the nature of God in Christian circles had divided the church for hundreds of years before the emergence of Islam (51). Through the Shahadah, Islam declared boldly the nature of God and then left no room for argument by adding, “Mohammed is God’s messenger” (113). Stopping all future revelation eliminated the possibility of future false prophets obfuscating this doctrinal point. The Shahadah also gave all Muslims a common banner to rally towards despite differences in class, language, ethnicity, and geography. All Muslims everywhere recited the same Shahadah in the same language. To this day, most Muslims agree that pronouncing the Shahadah is the only necessary requirement to accept Islam (113). With the Shahadah eliminating all confusion over the nature of God and uniting Islam with the commonality of repeating the same phrase, Islam has remained much more cohesive over the centuries than either Christianity or Judaism.

The Hajj both unified the practice of and placed restrictions on the pilgrimage to Mecca (Chittick 116). Prior to the emergence of Islam, Mecca received pilgrims from the surrounding areas visiting the Kaba, a black stone understood by Muslims as the same stone given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel (Esposito 156). Soon after conquering Mecca, tradition tells us that Mohammed destroyed idols housed in the Kaba and restored it to the proper worship of Allah (156). Mohammed instituted many requirements for a proper pilgrimage to Mecca that make apparent that the pilgrimage needed restrictions to prevent the mistreatment of those left behind and to preserve the sanctity of the journey. For instance, the pilgrimage required that one arrange for his or her family and other dependents to live comfortably in case he or she never returned (Chittick 118). The Hajj also limits the requirement to make the journey to Mecca only once in a lifetime (117). This contrasts the requirements of Judaism, which limited the frequent requirements of temple worship to Jerusalem. The Islamic pilgrimage also prohibits jewelry, perfume, sexual activity, and hunting which may have characterized the activities of pilgrims prior to the Islamic codification of the laws for the Hajj (Esposito 156). These requirements brought about piety and unity among Islamic pilgrims. The conditions necessary to make the Hajj demonstrate an innovative solution to many problems associated with pilgrimages prior to the spread of Islam.

The Zakat revises the Judeo-Christian notion of charitable giving to institute economic reform. Judaism and Christianity gave a tithe, or ten percent of an individual’s income (Powell 1). The principle of Zakat removes the notion of a flat tax for all adherents and taxes only those who own a business or property (Chittick 116). The Zakat requires 2.5% to 10% of all ones’ profit every year and its collectors can distribute it for only very specific purposes (Chittick 116). This policy clearly attempts to reconcile the practice of unequal distribution of land endowments prevalent before the emergence of Islam (Michalopoulos 37). According to Powell, the institution of Zakat in modern Islamic countries has a positive correlation with wealth and economic equality (Powell 29). The revolutionary idea of a wealth tax in the time of Mohammed appeals to many prominent tax scholars today (Powell 50). As shown in an exhaustive economic analysis of the Zakat, the reforms in certain geographic conditions benefit both the rich and the poor (37). According to Michalopoulos, “The Islamic economic principles allowed the Muslim lands to escape from a state of constant feuding and flourish in the preindustrial world…” (37) As shown by economic analysis of Michalopoulos and the continued success of the Zakat today, we can conclude that the Zakat successfully improved upon the common economic practices in the Arabian Peninsula and can even provide insight into current taxation policy (37). 

The Shahadah, the Hajj, and the Zakat show significant reforms to contemporary practices in the Arabian Peninsula. These basic tenets of Islam define the nature of God, codify the practice of pilgrimage to Mecca, and invent new structures of redistribution of wealth. The source of the doctrines of Islam does not receive attention in this paper, but from a secular perspective, they alter existing practices with the purpose of unification and improving the lot of the common population.