To investigate whether abrogation took place in the Qur'an.

To investigate whether abrogation took place in the Qur'an, it is important to firstly define what abrogation is. Abrogation is an English term meaning 'cancellation', 'annulment' or 'repeal.' The word corresponds with the Arabic term nasikh. However, the Arabic term does not have the same negative connotations as abrogation. Now that the word abrogation has been defined, it is possible to investigate whether abrogation took place in the Qur'an and whether it corresponds to the English terminology or not. One of the methods used to do this was to look at the chronology of the revelations. Another method is to look at the verses and to see whether they can be classified as abrogating or abrogated. In the book The Qur'an and its Exegesis: Selected Texts with Classical and Muslim Interpretations, The author says that the Qur'anic doctrine itself said, "Certain verse can be abrogated by others," therefore the task of discovering those verses was important.1 Chronology was a method used to determine when verses were revealed. It helped to understand the situation the verses were revealed in.2 By understanding the order of the verses, it allowed scholars to distinguish between those verses that were abrogating and those that were abrogated. The early Muslim scholars categorized verses into Meccan and Medinan periods. These were then further divided "into sub-periods,

  • Word count: 2190
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Women in Islam

Women in Islam Islam has often been stereotyped as a "sexist" religion, that it is "oppressive to women, that the veil and segregation epitomised that oppression, and that these customs were fundamental reasons for the general backwardness of many Muslim nations". Provide a critique of these assumptions, using relevant examples. This essay will discuss the notion that Islam is a sexist and oppressive religion. It will include a brief explanation of the Qur'an and Hadith's and how interpretations of these writing's have led to varied practices of the faith among the vast Muslim populations. The essay will touch on the many inconsistencies in the equality of men and women. Particular attention will be given to the traditions of marriage, the veil and segregation as well as the varying views on theses practices. Ultimately, this essay will attempt to offer differing attitudes on the oppressiveness of women in the Islamic faith. The Islamic faith is based on the Qur'an which is the sum total of God's revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. According to Muslim belief, the Qur'an is the primary source of Islamic jurisprudence and theological interpretation (El Saadawi, N., 1982, pg 198). The hadith (or traditions) are narratives collected into written form in the three or four centuries after Muhammad died, which encompassed the revered precedent of the Prophet and his Companions

  • Word count: 2895
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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What was the role of the Qur'an in shaping a distinctive scientific culture in classical Islam?

* What was the role of the Qur'an in shaping a distinctive scientific culture in classical Islam?' At the beginning of the 7th century, the teachings of Islam were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad and were compiled as volumes of Holy Scripture called the Qur'an. By the end of the same century, Islam had spread over all of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. The word "Islam" means "submission in peace (to the will of Allah)", and the people who profess such faith are "Muslims". Muhammad's armies swept out from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th and 8th centuries, and due to its position in the "middle belt" of the globe, Islam was exposed to many different civilisations and cultures. It was during this time that much of the forgotten or unknown knowledge of the ancients was rediscovered. It is the purpose of this essay to identify the influence of the Qur'an on the Islamic people; how its verses were interpreted by the Muslims, and finally whether there existed alternative streams of power whose effects were greater, or equal to that of the Qur'an in shaping the scientific culture. The practical information already familiar to the Arabs and Berbers, wandering tribes and traders, simply allowed them to survive in the harsh landscapes of the Arabian Peninsula and Northern Africa...and concerned information on plants, animals and geology for example. Important also was

  • Word count: 1687
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Gandhi and the Partition of India". New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd. 1984.

Chaudhri, Sandhya. "Gandhi and the Partition of India". New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd. 1984. The first two chapters address factors of Hindu-Muslim contention, their growing differences and Gandhi's nascent endeavors to resolve the quandary of communalism in India. The next chapter deals with the emergence and evolution of ideas concerning the establishment of Pakistan as an independent homeland for Muslims. Chapter 4 entails an analysis of British efforts to resolve the question of India-Paksitan partition through the Cripps Offer and Gandhi's reaction to it. In the following chapter provides a gloss of the Quit India Movement and its effect on political developments on this issue. In Chapter 6, an overview of Rajagopalachari's formula and Gandhi's dialogue with the League leader for arriving at a settlement of the communal problem is discussed. The final three chapters include a survey of the British approach toward the settlement of the Indian tangle through the Wavell offer, the Cabinet Mission Plan and the Mountbatten Plan-each followed by Gandhi's reaction. Chaudhri presents an extended overview of the process whereby India split into two nations. To compliment the process, he uses Gandhi as a gauge to measure and access failure and success in keeping India united. Through evaluating the Muslim League's campaign for a separate homeland, while

  • Word count: 971
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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'Polygamy is a fundamental right of a husband and is sanctioned by the Quran itself'. Discuss.

'Polygamy is a fundamental right of a husband and is sanctioned by the Quran itself'. Discuss. This essay shall aim to assess the presence of verses within the Quranic text pertaining to polygamy against the wider array of literature concerning polygamy found in the Prophetic tradition and modern legislation as symbolized in forms of 'ijtihad' or 'qiyas', which are "all forms of methodological reasoning on the basis of the Quran and Sunna"1. It shall subsequently be shown how such reasoning sanctioning polygamy has been challenged by actors in the increasingly secularised nation states of the Middle Eastern region and how such opposition is embodied in the various respective codes of legislation. It shall be shown that whilst the Quran has sanctioned polygamy, it is nevertheless imperative to contextualise both the verses and anecdotes alluding to such a practice in order contextualise the polygamous phenomenon. Furthermore, even though the various schools of thought have endorsed the practice as legal regardless of the reasons for concluding a polygamous marriage, such a phenomenon has rightly been challenged by those states where Islamic law is pertinent to at least the civil realm of life, as they fear that the practice itself has been taken out of its original intended context, which shall be discussed at length below. It shall serve firstly to state that the

  • Word count: 2681
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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An Interpretation on Number of Women Scientists in Turkey, Finland and Russia

An Interpretation on Number of Women Scientists in Turkey, Finland and Russia Being curious living things, human beings have always questioned the world and the universe. Either women or men, people have searched for more knowledge since prehistoric times. Science in the early times started with scholars and their schools of teaching and thinking. In those times, science was mostly to understand more basic entities in the world as compared today's science, which tries to understand from the smallest part of the universe to the whole universe. Looking science with this approach, science should be a concern for everybody. However, there have been some branches of academia regarded as masculine, like mathematics, physics and some feminine like psychology and literature. According to Wiesner (2002), these distinctions are due to cultural norms, technological developments; religious and intellectual currents, economic institutions, and popular beliefs. Science, likewise being the money-supplier of family, had been men's work many times in the history. For instance, from the fourteenth to mid-eighteenth century, Europe women could not be employed in occupations requiring university or former education, even education was thought to be needless for women (Wieser, 2002). However, this does not imply that women had never dealt with scientific issues. Besides, there had

  • Word count: 1745
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Is Islam the cause of the 'Clash of Civilizations?'

Is Islam the cause of the 'Clash of Civilizations?' By Namit Sachar Following the end of the cold war, several thinkers proclaimed that the world had entered a new phase in which there would be no major conflicts; Francis Fukuyama wrote a book proclaiming that it was the 'end of history' (The end of history?,1989). The idea was that in a unipolar world, with no superpower rivalry to fuel them, economic activity would be everyone's prime concern and any conflicts would be localized and brought under control. This utopian vision was soon contradicted by the outbreak of religious and ethnic conflicts in many parts of the world including Yugoslavia, the Caucasus, Kashmir, Indonesia and parts of Africa. These, especially the conflict in Yugoslavia seemed to indicate that old ethnic and religious rivalries that had been kept in check under superpower dominance were now coming to the fore. Faced with this reality, some political scientists in the west tried to explain them in terms of civilizations rather than economic and political terms or ideologies that dominated the cold war era. One of these is Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations thesis expounded in his well-known book clash of civilizations (1993). According to Huntington the world may be seen as being composed of civilizations that overlay nation states. He identifies several of these civilizations including the

  • Word count: 1247
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Was the prophet Muhammad, in your opinion a political leader? Discuss and support your opinion with evidence.

Henry Morris, 0255543, TH1060 Was the prophet Muhammad, in your opinion a political leader? Discuss and support your opinion with evidence. In the early seventh century, Muhammad had a vision. The angel Gabriel appeared and proclaimed "You are the messenger of God". Muhammad began his career as rasul Allah (a messenger of God). Today more than a billion people align themselves with the Islamic tradition and recognise Muhammad as its human founder. On earth Muhammad led and guided people, militaristically, spiritually and politically. He appears to have been an extraordinary man who founded a very large and influential religion. But was he a political leader? Muhammad was a skilled politician and a shrewd tactician. To Muslims, however, he is a prophet. He led people under God's banner. The aim of any politician or political party is to attain power. Muhammad didn't appear to be out for power himself, rather to show the world the way of Islam. As a prophet, Muhammad performed the functions of a political leader for Islam rather than himself. We might suggest that the compartmentalisation of religion and politics is fairly recent and it is accordingly anachronistic to look at Muhammad in such simple terms. This provokes the question, how are we identifying Muhammad? Are we looking at him, or representations of him made over thirteen centuries. Is posterity providing our

  • Word count: 2224
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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When I ask people what world peace means to them,I rarely get a coherent answer. When I do, they generally express the same sentiment:

Peace "If you could have one thing, what would it be?" The classic answer to this question, of course, is world peace. When I ask people what world peace means to them, I rarely get a coherent answer. When I do, they generally express the same sentiment: "Where everyone is happy and no fighting is taking place." Yet a dream scenario such as this can never truly exist, even in a utopia. This impossibility leaves me wondering whether peace is just an unattainable goal, or something different, more personal and more possible. A dictionary defines peace as a state of existence with an absence of conflict. Again, the unattainable goal of "peace" is the basis of this definition. Dictionaries, although they print a strict definition, cannot take into account all the different connotations of a word. Dictionaries also cannot begin to explore what a word means to different people based on their experiences. I once knew someone who worked as a peace keeper in Bosnia. He told me that his job description included disabling people who tried to disturb the "peace." He commented on how ironic this was, as he, by disabling people, was not actually being peaceful himself. He said that he had to break the peace in order to keep the peace. His definition of peace was one of organizations, religions, or groups of people that did not physically fight or hurt each other. My mother

  • Word count: 1035
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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'To exerts one's power in repelling the enemy. Jihad is of three kinds: against a visible enemy; against the devil; and against self.'

JIHAD 'To exerts one's power in repelling the enemy. Jihad is of three kinds: against a visible enemy; against the devil; and against self.' This explanation of jihad comes from the Mufradat of Raghib, which is the classical dictionary of Quranic terms. Jihad, meaning striving, comes from the words judh, which means effort, and jahida, which means to be tired as a result of the effort being made. The Holy Quran and Hadith speak of three kinds of jihad, they are: ) A great jihad; 2) The greatest jihad; and 3) A lesser jihad. Greater jihad (or the greatest jihad) is the constant battle, spiritually, with one's self to be righteous. It is putting in the effort to do, and be, good according to the Islamic rules and guidelines, which have been ordered by Allah. Greater jihad involves a Muslim trying to be good and maintaining that goodness, with the right intentions behind it, because of their love and devotion for Allah and their belief in their faith. It is against the limitations and ignorance of one's own soul. In other words it is the constant tireless effort that is made daily to serve and attain nearness to Allah. The Quran mentions striving

  • Word count: 1040
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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