The Nature and Triumph of Islam

[Vetus Ordo]

The Nature and Triumph of Islam

One of the most remarkable stories in all of human history is the rise of Islam. Coming virtually out of nowhere, Muhammad shaped the desert communities of Arabia into the center and vehicle of a new world view. While the Islamic revolution found its roots in the minor economic boom which the Arabs experienced during the late sixth century CE, more is owed to the middle-aged Muhammad's visions of Allah and his subsequent assertion of that god as the only divine presence in the universe. Outlasting the resistance of the ruling aristocracy in Mecca, Muhammad triumphed over adversity in a "holy war" and established himself as the prophet of Allah, only to die soon thereafter. After that followed a long line of caliphs, literally "successors (of the prophet)," who carried Muhammad's new religion forward, guiding the growing power of Islam across the known world and producing one of the finest civilizations ever seen, the age of the "Arabian Nights" (700-1000 CE). Though all too often disrupted by strife and ill-will, the cultural traffic between the Islamic world and Western civilization has advanced both immeasurably.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShAwhNR-ek[/yt]

Excellent overview. Just 40 minutes long.

[Tales]

My read on Islam is that it is a government more so than a religion, and its raison d'etre is to attack the empire.  Whereas the other major religions grew up inside of the empire, such as Christianity in Rome or Buddhism in China, Islam was founded completely on the outside of the empire.  Muhammad's earliest works were spiritual, but it did not take off, so things were rejiggered to be more about warfare (against the empire) and then Islam had some legs.  Islam was a unification of those outside of the empire to assault the empire.  It has been so ever since, with the very abnormal recent past century following the fall of the Ottomans which left the Muhammadans without a caliphate through which war against the empire is waged.  We see today the coalescence of what will become the next caliphate and it will continue on its attack against the empire.  I suspect this time it will absolutely crush the West (and deservedly so).

[Prayerful]

Another issue with the Mohammadan sect is that their Quran was only gathered and written down later from oral testimony and scraps of text. It isn't necessarily that clear either the early belief system. It is a system, an ideology of Arab imperialism.

[aquinas138]

Another issue with the Mohammadan sect is that their Quran was only gathered and written down later from oral testimony and scraps of text. It isn't necessarily that clear either the early belief system. It is a system, an ideology of Arab imperialism.

In fairness, the Old Testament was also written down later from oral testimony.

[Miriam_M]

I largely agree with Davis -- i.e., that Islam, like contemporary Judaism, has become much more politically driven -- Islam having longer legs in that effort than Judaism, but both inseparable from nation-state politics and the global effects of that.

Perhaps the Sufis have managed to remain apolitical and spiritual.  I once associated with the Sufis in my region, who were completely spiritual, very dedicated to prayer, and peaceful to a person.  Just 180 degrees from today's public manifestation of Islam.

[Mono no aware]

The only quibbles I have with this otherwise informative video are its introductory music, the voice of the narrator, and the claiming of Omar Khayyam as a fruit of Islam.  That is a stretch.  Khayyam was an unrepentant skeptic and quite fond of alcohol.  It's like claiming Shelley for Christianity.

Islam is probably the most deeply political of the Hebraic religions, but they are all political: the spiritual bond of Semitism. Christianity at its onset was admittedly apolitical ("render unto Caesar") but that was because the early Christians looked forward to an imminent Last Judgment.  After the fourth century, the paradigm changed.  The Donation of Constantine, Caesaropapism, papal supremacy, &c.  It was nearly inevitable for a religion rooted in the lore of the Old Testament.  "Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood."  The God of the Hebrews.  This is where I find Nietzsche most valuable, in that he viewed it all as the wild and variegated outgrowth of that ancient Jewish tree: a tree that could not be tamed or pruned.

[Vetus Ordo]

Another issue with the Mohammadan sect is that their Quran was only gathered and written down later from oral testimony and scraps of text. It isn't necessarily that clear either the early belief system. It is a system, an ideology of Arab imperialism.

In fairness, the Old Testament was also written down later from oral testimony.

The Qur'an was standardized into its present form during the Uthmanian recension, roughly 20 years after the death of Muhammad. All the earliest manuscripts that we possess are from the 7th century and largely conform to the Uthmanian recension. The Birmingham manuscript, radiocarbon dated between 568 and 645 A.D., corresponds to the text we have today. According to the Muslim historical sources, the text itself was entirely written down during the life of the Prophet in different parchments but wasn't organized into the current chapter and verse sections that we know of today until after the battle of Yamama in 633 - that is to say 11 years after the death of Muhammad - when, after 700 Muslims who had memorized the Qur'an were killed, the Caliph Abu Bakr ordered the personal secretary and scribe of Muhammad, Zayd ibn Thabit, with the task of collecting the scattered pieces of the text into one single copy. During the reign of Uthman, the written text of the Qur'an was standardized into one specific Arabic dialect, eliminating all other variants.

It is extremely unlikely that the Qur'an we possess today does not correspond to Muhammad's belief system.

[Vetus Ordo]

Khayyam was an unrepentant skeptic and quite fond of alcohol.

Although I'm inclined to agree, this seems to be still somewhat of an open question.

Islam is probably the most deeply political of the Hebraic religions, but they are all political: the spiritual bond of Semitism.

I agree.

But I'd phrase it as the spiritual bond of truth, for there is no arena in life where God can be left out of.

[Padraig]

the battle of Yamama in 633 - that is to say 11 years after the death of Muhammad

Isn't that just one year after Mohamed died? Not to be argumentative, but just to emphasize how quickly after his death the texts would have been codified.

[Vetus Ordo]

the battle of Yamama in 633 - that is to say 11 years after the death of Muhammad

Isn't that just one year after Mohamed died? Not to be argumentative, but just to emphasize how quickly after his death the texts would have been codified.

Yes, you're correct. He died in 632.

My mistake.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

the battle of Yamama in 633 - that is to say 11 years after the death of Muhammad

Isn't that just one year after Mohamed died? Not to be argumentative, but just to emphasize how quickly after his death the texts would have been codified.

Yes, you're correct. He died in 632.

My mistake.

In fact, the date of his death is reckoned as today, June 8, in our calendar.

[Vetus Ordo]

Here's an interesting video about the four great Imams of Sunni Islam, the founders of the four traditional schools of jurisprudence.

Imam Abu Hanifa, founder of the Hanafi school;
Imam Malik, founder of the Maliki school;
Imam Al-Shafi'i, founder of the Shafi'i school;
Imam Ibn Hanbal, founder of the Hanbali school.

The schools share most of their rulings but differ on the particular practices which they may accept as authentic and the varying weights they give to analogical reason and pure reason.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dklP1YNKBxA[/yt]

[Vetus Ordo]

For almost 13 centuries, from the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 to the overthrow of the last Ottoman caliph in 1924, the Islamic world was ruled by a caliph. Translated from the Arabic Khalifa, the word 'caliph' means successor or deputy. The caliph was considered the successor to the Prophet Muhammad. It is a term that has, at times, been abused. In June 2014, a militant group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (known as ISIL or ISIS) declared the establishment of a caliphate and proclaimed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a caliph. This proclamation was rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims. ISIL had attempted to appropriate a title imbued with religious and political significance – and in doing so had cast a dark shadow over a rich history. This is the story of the caliph, a title that originated 1,400 years ago and that spanned one of the greatest empires the world has ever known.

In this episode of the Caliph, Al Jazeera tells the story of the caliphate, providing a fascinating insight into how the first caliphs of Islam built and expanded their empire.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3O9d7PsI48[/yt]

In this episode of The Caliph, Al Jazeera tells the story of the caliphate, looking at the Sunni-Shia divide, and how this split arose from a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuplOE5JB4M[/yt]

Al Jazeera tells the story of the 1,300-year-long struggle for the caliphate and looks at how different dynasties rose and fell - ending with the decline of the Ottoman caliphate.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXXSo7WzZsk[/yt]

[Vetus Ordo]

Excellent HD version of the famous film The Message, a 1976 epic historical drama film directed by Moustapha Akkad, chronicling the life and times of the Prophet Muhammad. Released in Arabic (1976) and English (1977), this movie serves as an introduction to early Islamic history.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHcNzpmB3MM[/yt]

Muhammad is visited by the angel Gabriel, which makes him deeply shocked. The angel asks him to start and spread Islam. Gradually, almost the entire city of Mecca begins to convert. As a result, more enemies will come and hunt Muhammad and his companions from Mecca and confiscate their possessions. They head north, where they receive a warm welcome in the city of Medina and build the first Islamic mosque. They are told that their possessions are being sold in Mecca on the market. Muhammad chooses peace for a moment, but still gets permission to attack. They are attacked but win the Battle of Badr. The Meccans want revenge and beat back with three thousand men in the Battle of Uhud, killing Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The Muslims ran after the Meccans and left the camp unprotected. Because of this, they were surprised by riders from behind, so they lost this time. The Meccans and the Muslims closed a 10-year truce. A few years later, Khalid ibn Walid, a Meccan general who killed many Muslims, converted to Islam. Meanwhile, Muslim camps in the desert were attacked in the night. The Muslims thought that the Meccans had done so. Abu Sufyan came to Medina fearing retribution and claiming that it was not the Meccans, but robbers who had broken the truce. None of the Muslims give him an audience, claiming he "observes no treaty and keeps no pledge." The Muslims respond with an attack on Mecca with very many troops and "men from every tribe". Abu Sufyan sought an audience with Muhammad on the eve of the attack. The Meccans became very scared but are reassured that no one will be abused and any in their house, by the Kaaba, or in Abu Sufyan's house will be safe. They surrendered and Mecca came into the hands of the Muslims. The Pagan images of the gods in the Kaaba were destroyed, and the very first azan in Mecca was called on the Kaaba by Bilaal Ibn Rabaah.

[Xavier]

The approximately five hundred years from Mohammed's death in 632 A.D. to 1095 A.D. when the first Crusade was finally called were marked by a series of unprecedented tragedies for Christianity documented below. Constantinople would finally fall to the Ottomans in 1453 A.D. It was only with the Blessed Mother and Her Divine Son's repeated intervention in favor of Christianity, especially at Lepanto, 1571 A.D., that the tide turned. Dr. Paul Stenhouse explains: https://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Stenhouse/crusades.01.htm

"Islam's attack on Christianity

For the Christian states bordering the Mediterranean, it was a four-hundred and sixty-three year period of regular, disorganized [and occasionally organized] bloody incursions by Muslim mainly Arab and Berber land and sea forces. These came intent on booty - gold, silver, precious stones and slaves - on destroying churches, convents and shrines of the 'infidels,' and on the spread of politico-religious Islam throughout Europe from their bases in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic.

At the time of Muhammad's death there were flourishing Christian and Jewish communities in Arabia, and throughout the major centres of the Persian Empire. The whole of the Mediterranean world on its European, Asian and African sides, was predominantly Christian.

It had taken only a few years for Muslim tribesmen from Arabia, inspired by Muhammad's revelations and example, to invade the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire whose emperors devoted more time to religious disputation than to defending their empire. In 633 Mesopotamia fell. After a few years the entire Persian Empire fell to the marauding Arab tribesmen who drove the young Persian emperor Yazdagird into the farthest reaches of his empire, to Sogdiana [Uzbekistan], where he was eventually murdered by his Tartar bodyguard in a miller's hut.

Damascus fell in 635, and Jerusalem capitulated five years after Muhammad died, in February 638.

The fall of Alexandria in 643 sounded the death knell of more than thousand years of Hellenic civilization that once enriched the whole of the Near East with its scholarship and culture. Henri Daniel-Rops claims that from the point of view of the history of civilization, Alexandria's fall was as significant as the fall of Constantinople to the Turks eight-hundred years later.[4]

Cyprus fell in 648-9 and Rhodes in 653. By 698 the whole of North Africa was lost.

Spain invaded

Less than eighty years after Muhammad's death, in 711, Muslims from Tangiers poured across the 13 km wide strait of Gibraltar into Spain. By 721 this Arab-Berber horde had overthrown the ruling Catholic Visigoths and, with the fall of Saragossa, set their sights on southern France.

By 720 Narbonne had fallen. Bordeaux was stormed and its churches burnt down by 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abdullah al-Ghafiqi in early spring 732. A basilica outside the walls of Poitiers was razed, and 'Abd al-Rahman headed for Tours which held the body of St Martin [who died in 397] apostle and patron saint of the Franks.

He was to be defeated and killed by Charles Martel and his Frankish army on a Saturday in October, 732, one hundred years after Muhammad's death, on the road from Poitiers to Tours a defeat that was hailed by Gibbon and others as decisive in turning back the Muslim tide from Europe.

Attacks on France, however, continued, and in 734 Avignon was captured by an Arab force. Lyons was sacked in 743. It wasn't until 759 that the Arabs were driven out of Narbonne. Marseilles was plundered by them in 838.

Muslim incursions into Italy had been a feature of life from the early 800s ...

Sacking of St Peter's

Naples herself had to beat off a Muslim attack in 837. But in 846 Rome was not to be so fortunate. On August 23rd 846, Arab squadrons from Africa arrived at Ostia, at the Tiber's mouth. There were 73 ships. The Saracen force numbered 11,000 warriors, with 500 horses.[6]

The most revered Christian shrines outside the Holy Land, the tombs of Sts Peter and Paul, were desecrated and their respective Basilicas were sacked, as was the Lateran Basilica along with numerous other churches and public buildings.

The very altar over the body of St Peter was smashed to pieces, and the great door of St Peter's Basilica was stripped of its silver plates. Romans were desolated and Christendom was shocked at the barbarism of the Muslim forces.

Three years later Pope Leo IV [847-855] formed an alliance with Naples, Amalfi and Gaeta, and when a Saracen fleet again appeared at the mouth of the Tiber in 849, the Papal fleet joined forces with its allies and they repelled the Muslim fleet which turned, and ran into a violent wind-storm that destroyed it, like Pharaoh's army long before ...

223 years from the First Crusade

At this point in our examination of the 'peaceful coexistence,' which is made much of by Muslim apologists, we are still two-hundred and twenty-three years away from the calling of the first Crusade. Perhaps readers may better understand, now, why Emperor Louis II, grandson of Charlemagne was absolutely convinced, in the ninth century, of the need for a Crusade. 'He was quite sure that Islam must be driven right out of Europe.'[7] But still there was no call for a Crusade.

I haven't spoken of Muslim attacks against the Byzantine Empire even though these, too, played a part in setting the stage for the Crusades. The much vaunted military might and political power of the Eastern Roman Empire carried with it responsibility for protecting the West from Muslim invaders. This it generally failed to do ...

At the beginning of the fifth century, two hundred years before Muhammad appeared, there were seven-hundred Catholic bishops in Africa.[14] Two hundred of them attended the Council of Carthage in 535 AD. By the middle of the 900s there were forty left. By 1050, as a result of 'peaceful coexistence,' there were only five left. In 1076 there were two. We learn this from a letter that Pope Gregory VII, 'Hildebrand,' wrote to Cyriacus, Archbishop of Carthage in June 1076. As three bishops are needed for the valid consecration of another bishop Gregory asked him to send a suitable priest to Rome who could be consecrated assistant bishop, so that he [Cyriacus] and Servandus, bishop of Buzea in Mauritania, and the new bishop could consecrate other bishops for the African Catholics.[15]

Gregory VII, on his deathbed in 1085, dreamt of forming a Christian League against Islam and said, 'I would rather risk my life to deliver the Holy Places, than govern the Universe'.[16]

It seems to have been the Seljuk Turkish capture of Jerusalem in 1076 that finally swung the balance, exhausted the patience of the European Christians, and fulfilled Gregory's wish. Pilgrimage to the Holy Places had became more difficult; a poll-tax was imposed on visitors. Those who dared journey there were harassed, robbed and some even enslaved.

At the Council of Piacenza summoned by Pope Urban II and held in March 1095, Byzantine delegates emphasized the danger facing Christendom from Muslim expansion, and the hardship facing Eastern Christians until the infidel be driven back.[17] They repeated an appeal made by Emperor Alexius to Robert of Flanders asking him to return to the East with some knights to assist the Byzantines in their struggle with the Muslims.

Towards the end of that same year, Urban II, at another Council held at Claremont in France, took up the suggestion, and urged Europe's Christians to 'Take the road to the Holy Sepulchre ... let each one deny himself and take up the Cross'. The Assembly rose to its feet and shouted 'God wills it'.

Muhammad died on June 8, 632 AD. It had taken four hundred and sixty three years for Europe's Christians to combine their forces and rise up in defence of themselves and of their Faith."