Nowadays, it is extremely important for people to read books like the one by Fazlur Rahman called “Major themes of the Quran.” Surrounded by the anti-Islamic propaganda and Islamophobia, people should try to get as much educated as possible in order to understand that Islamic culture is very close to the Christian and thus, cannot be judged based on the actions of extremist groups. “Major themes of the Quran” gives the readers a great insight into the sacred book of Islam and explains its main concepts. It is divided into several parts, and each part is responsible for a certain idea of the Quran. For those who are not familiar with the sacred book itself, Rahman’s thoughts might seem confusing. But if one studies religions and possesses a version of the Quran, one will find it easier to relate to Rahman’s book and keep track on his thoughts. In this paper, I’m going to summarize the main ideas of the Quran introduced by Rahman as well as to share my own thoughts and to brainstorm about the relationship between God and people in the Islamic culture.
In order to explain some of the major themes of the Quran, I have chosen three of them to concentrate on. These three include Nature, Prophethood and Revelation and Satan and Evil. I have picked these themes because they illustrate the most important areas of people’s lives. Nature has to be mentioned, because nature is everything that surrounds us. We are not able to exist without nature’s ultimate influence. Prophethood and Revelation are important, because they are present in almost every world religion. However, in each of them, they are different. Prophethood and Revelation are very specific in Islam and are able to tell a lot about how the minds of the Muslims function. Satan and Evil is an interesting topic, because the question of evil and how to fight it has been worrying people for thousands of years.
It took God six days to create the world, and he rested on the seventh. This is the same in the Quran, Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Rahman claims that while God was creating the world, he made everything depend on him (45). When a living creature (especially a human being) calls itself independent, it ultimately means that it considers itself holy, since only God is independent, everlasting and thus, holy. It becomes clear that God created the living world and made it dependent. Every time the world tries to exist on its own and doesn’t act according to God’s rules, it fails Allah and He sends misfortunes. Allah made everything dependent on him in order to control the world’s behavior and make it look back at God every time it is about to do something. People of faith often have more control of themselves than those who are atheists. In my opinion, this doesn’t have to do anything with being attached to a certain religion or worshipping a certain god. People of faith think about their actions twice because they are constantly pressed by the punishment. The fear of God makes them be more aware of their own actions, because they have ties with God that they don’t want to break. On the other hand, people that rely on themselves and don’t believe in the existence of any moral rules are condemned to make mistakes. And they may never find out, because they deny every single source of the ethics. Of course, the freedom of faith is important, but the world religions have to be taught at schools only to point out some of the essential moral rules that people’s relationship depend on. The Bible and the Quran may seem accurate for everyone, but the teachings that they carry are more than useful for the modern world citizens to note.
Nature is important in Islam because it is something that brings God and people together. It united all the living and non-living creatures, and it is the humans’ responsibility to take care of nature. Although there is no worshipping of nature in Islam (like in Hinduism or some pagan cultures, for example), it occupies an essential place in the Islamic world. If one manages to respect nature as God’s creation and live in peace with its inhabitants, one will also be successful in maintaining a healthy relationship with Allah himself.
There is just one God in Islam. No one but God can be considered holy. Even Muhammad, the main prophet of Islam, didn’t want to be worshipped after death and asked to be buried in a small shine so that people wouldn’t attempt to perform pilgrimages. The understanding of prophets and prophecies in Islam is very different from that of Christianity, for example. The main purpose of the prophet of Islam is to support people’s faith by spreading the word of God (Rahman 56). Not everyone is aware that there are a number of prophets in Islam, including Jesus. Islam doesn’t consider Jesus to be the Son of God, but it does acknowledge his importance as a prophet. The same goes for prophet Abraham, who is also an important figure in Islam. Because Christianity worships both God and his Son Jesus and considers them to be equally important, Islam views it as a pagan culture. In Islam, prophets cannot be worshipped in the same way as God. Such practice would contradict the major belief of Islam that Allah is the only infinite subject of the universe.
A lot of misunderstanding between Christianity and Islam comes from the differences in Prophethood and Revelation. In Islam, the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, who then went to spread the word of God around the world and convert everyone to his faith. In Christianity, Jesus wasn’t revealed anything by His Father; he himself was meant to be a living proof of God’s existence; unlike Muhammad, Jesus performed miracles and cured the sick. After his crucifixion and death, he became saint, and everything he touched turned into valuable objects that many people are willing to see and touch. Prophet Muhammad, on the other hand, preferred to stay in shadow. He didn’t think about himself as of someone chosen. He was a political leader as well and couldn’t dedicate himself purely to helping people like Jesus. Muhammad was also interested in expanding the territory and converting the conquered to Islam. Prophethood in Islam is closely tied to rule and power. That is why the concept of the Holy wars is so strong in Islam. It’s important to remember that Islam is a highly politicized religion that doesn’t exist apart from the politics. That is why Prophethood is so much different in Islam and may seem extraordinary to the Westerners.
The image of evil is almost the same in every culture. Evil is something that separate people from God once the former fall into the evils’ web. The ultimate goal of evil is to possess human spirit and win the everlasting fight with God. In Islam, evil is embodied in Satan, who is thought to be a major rival of Allah. Interestingly enough, their relationship was different in the beginning of the universe. It is even believed that Satan was one of the most dedicated and loving angels of God. He had many names, but the Islamic culture used to call him Iblis. He loved Him so much that when God created Adam and Eve and ordered all the angels to serve Adam, Iblis refused and for that, he was sent away from Heaven. After that, Iblis created his own kingdom, where he welcomed everyone who refused to bow to God. Due to a number of images that portray Iblis torturing human souls in Hell, people developed a strong fear of evil. This, of course, encouraged them to come to God and seek His protection. Mosques thus made people feel a lot safer. The illustrations of the torture usually contained the images of human bodies being torn and burned. For the majority of people, physical suffering is one of the worst things that can happen. It thus can be surely said that the existence of Iblis raises the number of Allah’s followers. According to Rahman, the fear of Iblis is also explained with the fact that he wasn’t just the rival of God, but also the rival of humankind (since he refused to respect it) (86). In the Quran, Iblis distained men, and men were expected to develop a similar attitude.
According to Rahman and the Quran, the purpose of the humans’ existence is to serve God (63). This is not new; it comes from the past, when both Muslims and Christians were pagans. They lived on the lands of modern Iraq and Syria called Mesopotamia and had a great number of gods in the pantheon. People’s lives didn’t have any other purpose but to learn to become good servants of God. Their lives on Earth were dark, and they looked forward to dying, because only after death could they fulfill their main purpose. Their lives mainly involved thinking about death and preparation to death. The lives of the modern Muslims isn’t all about death and dying anymore. With the arrival of monotheism, people’s goals changed. It was then proved that in order to become a good servant of God, one should have done more than to just properly prepare for death. To be closer to God and to prove Him their love and faith, they perform daily rituals, such as prayers that have to be completed five times a day. They also visit the Holy Land at least once in their lives to walk around Ka’ba and connect to God through meditation.
God created the world for people to thrive and praise him (Rahman 63). In his book, Rahman emphasizes that God’s power is aimed to making people’s lives better. God worked hard for men in order to provide them with all the essentials; not only did he care when he was creating the world, but he also continued to keep an eye on people after. He never abandoned people, and he expected faith and loyalty in response. Every time people broke the covenant, God was outraged and sent misfortunes. That is how Muslims (and other religious communities around the world) explained diseases, poverty, deaths and wars. This too traces back to the ancient world, when people didn’t know about many of the diseases. The infant mortality rate was extremely high, and people needed answers. Because if gods watched them from Heaven, how could they let such things happen? The rules of Islam were pretty strict, and anyone who broke them was thought to fail Allah.
Although people and God are inseparable in Islam, there is always a big distance between the two. It is known that the image of God and of prophet Muhammad cannot be created because both of them are too great for people to try to portray them. By not seeing the face of God and his prophet, Muslims demonstrate how far God actually is, although his presence can be felt all the time. Muslims are born and raised praying without seeing whom they are praying to. Such feeling makes them understand and remember their real position in the structure of the world. It is difficult for the Christians to relate, because they are raised seeing the images of God and Christ and all the saints all over. The Muslims, however, are not even allowed to portray God in films and children books. However, the ability to pray without seeing the subject and to concentrate on pure inner imagination points out the fact that Islamic faith is very strong. Not every religion is able to exist and keep its followers without giving them the image of God and his prophets.
Rahman claims that if one lives a proper Muslim life, he is allowed to possess wealth (35). Quran doesn’t have anything against wealth, unlike Christianity, where wealthy people are automatically considered to be spoiled and sinful. In Islam, if one earns well and is able to wisely treat what he earned, one will not encounter any problems. However, once people start abusing their power and wealth, they are no longer considered to be proper servants of god. When people are blinded with their wealth, they no longer need to connect with God and they lose the desire to pursue high values. I completely agree with Rahman on this and I also think that worshipping wealth doesn’t bring people to a better inner state, even if they are not religious. The stereotype, which portrays rich people as arrogant and uncompassionate is often wrong, but from time to time it can be proven right. Wealth gives a lot of opportunities; it gives a freedom of movement around the world and allows getting as much comfort as one wants. Being able to do these things, people often forget about ethics, especially if their wealth is unexpected and they’ve lived all their lives in poverty. They start ignoring those in need, and what is more, they place themselves above everyone else and break the contact with those who used to be their friends before. It cannot be stated for sure that money causes such behavior, because if one’s values are strong, one will not lose them whatever happens. That’s why the Quran is quite democratic when it comes to possessing wealth. All it is asking from people is not to forget God. Other cultures are not as open as Islam. As I already said, Christianity, for example, disdains anyone who is wealthy and who owes luxurious objects. On the other hand, Christian popes and bishops are never in need themselves, and Christian churches are decorated with gorgeous frescos and glass windows, which is definitely a big contradiction.
This paper broke down the book of Fazlur Rahman called “Major themes of the Quran.” I have picked three main concepts of the Holy book of Islam and explained them from Rahman’s and my own point of view. I have also described the relationship between God and people in the Quran and named things that shaped and influenced it. The ultimate conclusion I have come up with is that there are many interpretations of the Quran, and the one by Rahman is clear and well put together. However, it is difficult for those who are not familiar with the Holy book itself to understand the interpretation. That is why people (especially the Westerners) should be encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Quran just as they do with the Bible. This would save the world from a lot of misconceptions and help fight growing Islamophobia.
Works Cited:
Rahman, Fazlur. Major Themes of the Qurʼān. Minneapolis, MN: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1980. Web. 26 Mar. 2016.
