Origins of Islam Essay

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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.