Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Gita: The eternal song of Love and Ultimate Wisdom [Re: vinaire] #19115 - 08/08/02 03:22 AM Edit Reply Quote

I'll try to find more and more data for a chronology of the developments: 610 CE: Early Islam - Originally adhering to a polytheistic notion of the divine, Muhammad has a religious experience that changes not only his life, but the history of a large part of the world. He hears a divine voice, later believed to be the angel Gabriel of the Christian religion, tell him that Allah is the only god. He receives further instructions to adopt the name of "Prophet" and convert the Quraish to accept the monotheism. 622 CE: Early Islam - The Quraishs resist the new religion. Muhammad and his small band of followers migrate to the town of Yathrib in the north, which is open to his new faith. The Hijrah of 622, the migration, marks the beginning of the Muslim era. After making himself ruler, Muhammad changes the name of the town to Medina ("city of the Prophet"), and Medina becomes the seat of the caliphate. 630 CE: Early Islam - Muhammad and his followers overtake Mecca. With the Quraish in submission, the Kabah, the central place of worship for Arabian tribes, becomes the main shrine of Islam. 632 CE: Early Islam - With the death of Muhammad, his father-in-law, Abu-Bakr, and Umar devise a system in which Islam can sustain religious and political stability. Accepting the name of caliph ("deputy of the Prophet"), Abu-Bakr begins a military exhibition to enforce the caliph's authority over Arabian followers of Muhammad. He thereafter moves northward overtaking Byzantine and Persian forces. Abu-Bakr dies two years following his succession of Muhammad. Umar succeeds him as the second caliph and begins a campaign against the neighboring empires. 644 CE: Early Islam - Umar dies and is succeeded by Caliph Uthman, a member of the Umayyad family which rejected Muhammad's prophesies. Rallies arise to establish Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, as caliph. 656 CE: Early Islam - Caliph Uthman is murdered, and Ali becomes the new caliph. 661 CE: Early Islam - Not satisfied with Ali, Uthman's followers murder Ali. One of Uthman's relations takes the title of caliph, and Damascus replaces Medina for the seat of the caliphate. The Umayyad family rules Islam until 750. Ali's followers form a religious party called Shiites and insist that only descendants of Ali deserve the title of caliph or deserve any authority over Muslims. The opposing party, the Sunnites, insist on the customs of the historical evolution of the caliphate rather than a hereditary descent of spiritual authority. This is the very beginning of the movement. The core of Muslim practice are the 5 pillars. Not only do pious Muslims follow the previously discussed "five pillars of Islam," but they generally have attempted to follow the words of Muhammad and to model their actions after his customary practice. The Arabic term that stands for the Prophet Muhammad's customary practice, is the sunnah. Then there came the schools: Schools of Dogmatic Theology Mu'tazili School The first major school of "dogmatic theology" to crystallize was called the Mu'tazili school. Arising as a theological school in the early part of the eighth century CE, the Mu'tazilah stood primarly for three principles: absolute unity of God (tawhid)(hence anything besides God, including the Qur'an, could not be co-eternal with God and was therefore considered to be temporal or created), God's justice ('adl) (allowing for human free will), and Divine reward and punishment (al-w'ad wa-al-wa'id) (in the Hereafter). See the articles Mu'tazilah and Islamic Thought: Mu'tazilah in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Ash'ari School In the tenth century CE, reacting against the Mu'tazilah, the Sunni movement arose, representing the majority of Muslims. Its major figure was Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 AH/ 935 CE) is the Muslim scholar whose school of "dogmatic theology" (kalam), the Ash'ari school of 'aqida (doctrine), came to dominate the orthodox position in the Sunni Muslim world. Islamic law contains guidelines and rules for all aspects of a Muslim's life, such as how to pray, the proper way to conduct a business transaction, how to bury the dead, as well as crimes and punishments. Traditionally, these laws were based largely upon the Qur'an and the sunnah, which is the practice of the Prophet. These clear principles were applied to new circumstances that later Muslims encountered. Over the course of a few centuries the ways in which these principles should be interpreted crystallized in the form of the four major Sunni "schools of law (Maliki, Hanafi, Sha'fi'i, and Hanbali schools) or jurisprudence" (madh'hab) in addition to the Shi'i schools, the most dominant of which is the Ithna 'Ashari (12 Imam) or Ja'fari madhhab. Last Wahhabi School Wahhabiya, sometimes called the Salafi school, is an early modern, 18th century offshoot of the Hanbali madh'hab. Although defeated and deprived of influence in 1818, new life was breathed into the Wahhabi movement in the early 20th century by the ascendancy to power in the Arabian peninsula on the part of the Sa'udi dynasty. Regarded by non-Wahhabis as an extreme fundamentalist version of Islam, the Wahhabi school--which is anti-Sufi and anti-Shi'i-- is dominant in Saudi Arabia and very influential throughout the rest of the world. For details of the Ahadith, Vishal has provided us with a link elsewhere on the forum.