Introduction
No faith in the modern society is as feared and controversial as Islam. It covers the common opinion as an extreme religion that has elements of terrorism, authoritarian leadership, gender imbalance, and civil war.
However, Islamic religion appears to be complex than we assume. This essay explores the role of Islam in society, its political position, military affairs, and territorial expansion with reference to the period of Prophet Muhammad.
Religion
History puts it that Islamic faith has evolved from the periods of Prophet Muhammad into present times. The word Islam means submission to God’s will. This definition suggests that everything must obey the rules and the will of Allah or the law of nature.
The faith teaches that God’s power came to humanity through Quran to Muhammad. Subsequently, Muslims believe that God is all-powerful and know-it-all. Besides, God has no social measures, equals, peers, beginning, or end. The Medina Charter declared Muhammad as the solely prophet of God.
Islamic religion asserts that the Quran came through a messenger or prophet of God, and Muhammad was the final of such messengers (Goldschmidt 12).
The fundamental belief of the Islamic religion as expressed by Muhammad is the judgment day, which no one can flee. Muslims believe that everyone will face judgment before the heavenly throne (Goldschmidt, 34).
The religion observes right actions, rules, and laws. There are five vital pillars of Islamic faith guiding believers. The first pillar is witness (Shuhuduh). This rule stresses that there is only one God and Muhammad is God’s messenger. The second pillar is the worship (salat) or ritual prayer.
Fasting (Saturn) is the third pillar of Islam that Muslims observe during the holy month of Ramadan. The fourth pillar talks about giving of tithe (zakat) or alms. The final pillar talks about pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca. There are also other duties and prohibitions such as jihad to guide believers.
They also fight those who forbid God or his prophets, and others who reject allegiance to the true until they pay tribute to Islam. Jihad has many meanings depending on situations and contexts.
It can mean fighting Jews, Christians, or pagans. Some modern Muslims claim that jihad is an act of defending Islam against attack from external aggressors through verbal or military attack.
Politics
During the development of Islamic religion, the religion experienced divisions among the Shiites, Sufis, and Sunnis. We can attribute these divisions to the fact that religious leaders of the time experienced worldly changes, which consumed them just like politicians.
Further, scholars note that this power struggle is an abuse of a sacred ideology since religion is not about supremacy. Studies show that the faith of Islam main duty is to create a just society where all members experience equal treatment and respect.
The subsequent history had negative effects on Islamic faith. Muslim religion had its own rituals, philosophy, laws, mysticism, laws, shrine, and sacred writings just like any other religion.
Islamic political development has evolved through various phases. First, we have the traditional or republican phase, which mainly occurred during earlier periods of establishing Islamic religion among pagans, traders, and nomads. This was the period of Muhammad (Trifkovic 102).
The second phase was the liberal phases in which Muslims attempted to incorporate many non-Muslims. The final phase is the repressive phase whereby Muslim rulers established complete autocratic systems.
This happened after Islam became hardened religion among the converts and conquered (Karsh 18).
Some Islam states also favor secularism. This implies that the state and society have secular belief systems and have separated the public life from Islam. In the Islamic context, secularism ideologies promote secular political and social views and not Islamic principles.
Therefore, there is a clear distinction between religious life and affairs of the state. As a result, strong followers of Islam have condemned secularism in states with such political ideologies and social values.
They believe that public issues should not come before religion. In fact, they feel that religion should influence every aspect of state and public matters. However, we have to note that religion cannot guide diverse interests of people in a state.
Some Islamic states have practiced secularism for many centuries. As a result, such states have low cases of human rights abuse. Some historians have concluded that secularism is the best way to run Muslim states.
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im asserts, “enforcing (Sharia) through coercive power of the state negates its religious nature, because Muslims would be observing the law of the state and not freely performing their religious obligation as Muslims” (An-Na’im 3).
In some cases, Muslims governments have retained secular approach to governance. However, Sharia laws guide aspects of citizens’ lives in situations of disputes. At the same time, the roles of Sharia laws in these countries differ.
Tolerances of secular political and social ideologies have created tensions in many secular states. Opponents believe that such ideologies promote anti-Islamic beliefs, Western supremacy, and imperialism.
Military affairs
We can understand military affairs from the teachings of Muhammad and contents of Quran under the pillar of jihad. Muslims believe that jihad is a struggle based on the ways of God. Muhammad first proclaimed jihad among his followers and urged them to fight for God.
Based on Jihad, Muslims exert their power over others they consider as inappropriate for their belief system. In this sense, a number of interpretations focus on what jihad is. It can be a devil, an enemy, non-Muslim, or aggressor, both from within or outside the territory.
These multiple meanings have brought confusions to the appropriate usage of the term jihad with reference to war. Some scholars have claimed that the use of jihad without any supporting term simply translates to warfare or military issues (Brockopp 99).
At the same time, jihad also reflects Muslims endeavor to attain highest possible spiritual morality. On this morality question, there are differences between ‘greater jihad’ and ‘lesser jihad’. The first one mainly concentrates on spiritual growth. Conversely, the latter focuses on warfare and radical solutions to issues.
Muslims states consider jihad as the use of military force to acquire new territories or protect the existing ones against enemies. In this sense, jihad becomes the guiding principle of military affairs. Currently, the exact aim of jihad remains unclear.
For instance, some believers consider jihad as a holy war for protecting their faith and territories without any offensive aims. On the other hand, others argue that jihad is an attempt by Muslims to conquer the world, just as Muhammad used it to extend Islamic territories.
The Islamic law allows jihad under certain conditions. For instance, Muslims can declare jihad against their enemies, terrorists, non-Muslims, pagans, and rulers who attempt to stop proselytizing aims of Islam or suppress Muslims.
However, many Muslims believe that jihad is only for defensive purposes. Different Islamic states (states that use Islamic laws) have various definitions of what conforms to Islamic justice system. This suggests that the use jihad is not uniform among different states of Muslims, which use jihad.
In most cases, we have noticed that Muslims engage in jihad as groups. This implies that jihad is a collective responsibility of Muslims and their leaders. In fact, Muslims who have power over society must make jihad a personal responsibility, and they must mobilize their followers to support the course.
Based on the current acts of Muslims, we cannot draw a conclusion on what jihad supports or limits of jihad. This is because Muslim fundamentalists have used jihad to terrorize and punish offenders under what the international community refers to as abuse of human rights or criminal activities.
In some cases, world leaders and some Islamic states have condemned such acts. Western media have constantly depicted the brutal and radical form of Islam (fundamentalism) as entirely as a creation Islamic religion.
Nevertheless, fundamentalism is a world affair, which all leading religions have experienced in reaction to issues of modernity. Therefore, fundamentalism does not take place accidentally and only takes its root when elements of modernity have advanced in stage.
Afterwards, religious leaders attempt to combine the two, but if they fail, some believers turn to radical actions, which result into fundamentalism movement. Fundamentalism ideologies highlight some of the botched promises of modernity and fear among opponents.
As a result, the movement sees secular ways as threats to religion and state. Such believers fight to restore the conventional and established ways. Muslim radicals differ with other Muslims who positively embrace modernity or Western political ideologies.
Besides, Muslim radicals maintain that they fight to survive and protect their religion. Under the guidance of such mindsets, some Muslims opt for terrorism while others try to reinstate their religion by legitimate ways.
Islam has provisions for military officials. For instance, Umar did not want his soldiers to get into contact with cities because of potential harmful influences like wealth and luxuries.
As a result, soldiers stayed in isolated encampments. This also prevented them for participating in power struggle with locals.
Territorial expansion of Islam
Scholars who have studied territorial expansion of Islam noted that it originated from actions of Muhammad. Muhammad used different methods, such as force, persuasion, and diplomacy in order to expand Islam.
Soon after the death of Muhammad, Caliphs took control of Islam and continued with aggressive tendencies of Muhammad in order to get new converts (Hitti and Khalidi 195).
In North Africa, Muslim conquerors met resistance from the Byzantines who ruled the region. This slowed down the pace of territorial expansion. Berber of Northwest Africa exerted much resistance and several fights against Muslims.
However, Muslims defeated Berber in the subsequent fights and took control of the city. They also destroyed Carthage to punish Byzantine Emperor for resistance.
After conquering North Africa, Muslims turned their attention to Europe in which they easily captured Spain. However, in 733 AD, Franks stopped Muslims at the Battle of Tours. This marked the end of territorial acquisition in Europe. As a result, the region remained under Christianity up-to-date.
Territorial expansion of Islam remained a significant achievement for Muslim in during the expansion period. The religion used force to put all Arab nations under Islamic laws. It then proceeded to claim Spain and some parts of Afghanistan.
This made some of the Caliphs the most powerful in the world. Under such a rapid expansion into Christian territories, Muslims and Christians had to struggle for control of some areas like the Mediterranean region.
Scholars have analyzed conditions, which led to struggle and expansion of Islam. Such territorial acquisitions led to the establishment of Muslim rules around the world. Muslims led several incursions in most areas of the world.
This suggests that the current territories remained the permanent ones after settlements. At the same time, there were places where Muslims faced continued resistance. In some parts of the world like the Indian Ocean region, Islam used trade to acquire new converts.
From history, we have to dispel any idea that Muhammad, subsequent Caliphs, and their followers used any peaceful means for territorial expansion. At the same time, we have to acknowledge that jihad was not defensive in any way. Therefore, all territorial acquisitions of Islam took place by forceful means.
Islamic conquerors assumed that all conquered territories were exclusively Arab states and established Islamic laws in such areas. Based on the teachings of Muhammad, conquerors forced the captured people to convert to Islam. This was the focus of the Arab rulers because they wanted to convert many territories to Islam.
It also of interest to note that Islam spread to other areas through trade, migration of Muslims, and wishes of urban dwellers to convert.
However, this did not stop some rulers from using Islamic principle of jihad to capture new territories. Generally, Islamic religion attracted many nomads and other primitive populations. However, the conquered majorities did not fully embrace the religion.
We know that it takes time for people to embrace new ideologies fully. This was the case of Christianity in the past. However, this was not the case of Islam. Captured people were aware of the consequences of not complying with the demands of rulers based on the violence nature of territorial expansions.
This coercion provided the needed advantage to convert many people to Islam. Therefore, Islamic religion lacked the peaceful means that Christianity used to be a dominant religion in the world today. Besides, such violence nature of the religion did not appeal to educated and civilized groups.
Conclusion
Islam has existed in criticism since its inception. Some of the earliest critics consisted of Christians who considered Islam as heresy. Later, some criticism emerged from other Muslims and Jewish scholars. Critics considered both the public and private life of Prophet Muhammad in their criticisms.
These are mainly morality issues. Some critics also focus on some teachings of Quran in order to debate controversial moral aspects of the religion.
Still, other scholars have also turned to issues of human rights in the modern society. At the same time, they also explore positions of women in Islamic nations.
Studies show that Islam has been a binding religion among faithful. However, some elements of fundamentalism and treatments of non-Muslims or offenders have brought concerns to different groups. As such, Islam continues to draw criticism from its roles and influences on military affairs, politics, and religious practices.
Works Cited
An-Na’im, Abdullahi Ahmed. The Future of Sharia: Secularism from an Islamic Perspective. Atlanta, GA: Emory School of Law, 2007. Print.
Brockopp, Jonathan. Islamic Ethics of Life: abortion, war and euthanasia. South Carolina: University of South Carolina press, 2003. Print.
Goldschmidt, Arthur. A Concise History of the Middle East 7th ed. Colorado: Westview Press, 2002. Print.
Hitti, Philip and Walid Khalidi. History of the Arabs 10th ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Print.
Karsh, Efraim. Islamic Imperialism: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Print.
Trifkovic, Serge. The Sword of the Prophet. Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press, 2007. Print.