Jim B. wrote:
I wonder if it is as hard to talk about Islam as one thing as about Xianity ( and here my extremely superficial knowledge will probably get me in trouble!) In Islam, you've got one text which is believed to be the direct transcription of God's intent given to one 'stenographer' and in the original language.
As much as I want to point to "broad consensus" on core theological issues, I have to acknowledge that modernity has been brutally efficient at tearing the fabric of the religion to pieces. Also, since Islam touches on so many social dimensions in explicit detail it has a mosaic like quality of cultural expressions that aren't just superficial but genuine "Islamic" distinctiveness. One of my favourite scholars in a poetic way says that, "Islam is a river and if it remains pure then it allows the river bed, which is the culture it inhabits, to be reflected through, but if it becomes polluted then it appears like a homogeneous muck".
Further, the Quran, while definitely central to the Islamic identity (and yes, with considerably less
baggage than the Bible) is only one element of the "authority" in the religion. The question of authoritative interpretation of both the Quran and the life of Prophet Muhammad (God send peace and blessings upon him) has left a line of "sects" and discord from shortly after the Prophet's death right up into our time. Though for a period of about a thousand years you could argue that Sunni Islam had achieved a broad consensus on how to interpret the religion, through schools of theology, law and spiritual practice. Refer back to my comment about modernity.
One of my favourite muslim scholars said something along the lines of, "people these days say 'I'm spiritual, but I don't like organized religion' so they should try Islam because it's possibly the least organized religion on the planet!" (meaning it's a chaotic stew).
I want to emphasize that there is indeed still a strong emphasis on the tradition of broad consensus, but some of the staunchest defenders of "The Tradition" have acknowledged that as it has accreted over time it has also become something of a burden (meaning specifically the aspects of law, which constitute the majority of religious teachings; though possibly not the most crucial teachings).
After saying all of that....I still can find a core Muslim identity shared across a very broad range of sects, cultures, and interpretations such that I can at least recognize something in the "other" that creates a bond between us. The Quran is central to that. You will find virutally nothing that connects an Ismaili with a Sunni, but I attended a gathering a few years back sponsored by the Ismaili community in Edmonton and they brought in a Sunni scholar to talk about the Quran's majestic qualities.
In Christianity you have multiple witnesses/authors/traditions talking about something that's inherently mysterious. God became a man. W-Wait...whut?! ST will correct me on this but I wonder if there is the same level or type of mystery at the foundation of Islam.
Yes and No.
God became a book.
Though the core message is pretty clear.
Jim B. wrote:I know there've been many schisms and theological disputes in Islam, but the main one, Sunni/SHiite I believe is about lineage and succession. Look at the disputes that raged in the Byzantine world ( and in the West) about what the foundations of Xianity could even mean.
With Islam, I get the sense that it's over, it's closed, the curtains been parted, at least as far as what we humans need to know in this earthly existence. We heard from The Man directly in His own words.
Like I said above, the question over who has the authority to interpret the religion has created a variety of divisions. The Sunni/Shia divide began as a political dispute, but evolved over time into a true divide over authority; with the Shia adopting the "Imamate" approach (the notion that God ordains a single person as the ultimate authority) with various splinters over who is that Imam, and the Sunni's adopting various methodological "schools of thought" of which there were many throughout history but predominantly only four remain. And both Sunni and Shia have their modernist twists that strain to even keep a coherent tether to their roots.
One can see questions over interpretation and belief forming factions from the earliest of time. A powerful group with considerable numbers of adherents were (are) the Mutazilites, which may be characterized as attempting to harmonize Islamic concepts with ancient Greek philosophy.
But you are right in a sense if you restrict yourself to the Sunni schools of thought which did resolve a broad consensus at least a thousand years ago. New circumstances always brought new questions, but the framework of how the "Sunni" tradition would proceed had been worked out and followed pretty consistently (up until maybe 1799 - 1850, and it became crystal clear when the Ottoman Caliphate dissolved into secularist Turkey). A key principle is that while there are important distinctions between these schools of thought, they were not considered as mutually exclusive, but each valid within their own frameworks (since no one can perfectly capture what God intends in all times and places, and no one can claim to have a perfect representation of Prophet Muhammad's teachings and character). This may be thought of as:
1) Ashari / Maturidi schools of theology
2) Hanafi / Hanbali / Shafi' / Maliki schools of jurisprudence drawing upon...
...3) Sahih al-Bukhari / Sahih Muslim / Sunan an-Nasa'i / Sunan Abu Dawood / Sunan Tirmidhi / Sunan ibn Majah / and a host of lesser known works of hadith collections (categorizations of narrations attributed to Prophet Muhammad)
4) Naqshabandi / Chishti / Qadari / Ja'fari / and a few other sufi orders, which prescribed how to implement the above in a way that is befitting of the character of Prophet Muhammad
(sorry I don't know really anything about Shia traditions, but there are long standing traditions there too)
If you consider the core message of the Quran it's probably no more complicated than: God is One; God is Supreme; repent and be saved. But if you consider that the *intention* of the Quran is that we seek to perfect ourselves by emulating the Best of Creation, the Mercy to the Worlds, Muhammad the Messenger of God....well, that's packing a lot meaning and it takes considerable *unpacking*.
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Praise be to God. It seems I'm going to be able to submit this one. ....I'm much happier with the product, too.
Peace,
-sgttomas