The word “Islam” means submission, submission to the will of God.

In Saudi Arabia in Mecca there were all these tribes and they all had their own gods whom they worshipped. Among them there was a god called Allah. It was Mohammed who made him the only god. He was just one of many.

Mohammed was born in 532 and he was a merchant. He was employed by a woman named Kadaja whom he eventually married. He used to go into the mountains on a regular basis to pray and fast.

In 1610 he received the revelation to write. The word “Koran” means dictation. He was called upon to be the last prophet. The Koran is about the size of the New Testament. This along with the Bible – all of these, Jews, Christians, and Muslim, - are followers of the Book.

Mohammed was able to make Islam not just a religious faith, but a social bringing together of people. It brought all the tribes together.

These people did not take his action immediately to heart. Religion had a lot to play in economics. In the 16th century in Gola when the Portugese came, they went to a village and destroyed a Hindu temple and the Hindus killed them. The temple marked an important part of their life. Destroying the temple meant cutting the life line of these people.

Mohammed had to run away from Mecca to Medina, 250 miles to the north. There he was accepted by the people. With a group of people and an army, he came back to Mecca and consolidated the people there. Then the people accepted him.

The Koran is a dictation. It was almost 40 years later that it came into present day shape. He would come down from the mountain and utter these things and people would write them down.
When the prophet died, there was a question of successor. His father-in-law, Ali, became the first caliph. Caliph means deputy to the prophet.

The Koran was written in classical Arabic. The people who read it in Arabic don’t understand what they are reading. The great joy is to be able to memorize the Koran. It is the revelation by God and can’t be tampered.

The Hadith is a book of sayings and can be changed since it is written by man. The Koran has to be taken at its face value.

Today Islam is a religion of many millions around the world. India has the largest number of Muslims, 150 million. It is only 15% of our population. After the prophet’s death, Islam spread very rapidly.
There are two centers of Islam. These two branches have a Byzantine slant and a Persian slant.

Alli was a cousin of the prophet and a brother-in-law of the prophet. His followers decided that he should be the caliph but he was murdered. His followers are Shi’i. The main group are the Sunni. The Shi’i have always been very militant. The Koran has many references to Judaism and Christianity. The prophet was illiterate. He could not read and write, but he was a learned man. Before the coming of the prophet, this was a backward area and they were ignored. He was able to give the people of the land the Koran.

There are about 100 references to Jesus in the Koran. He is not a messiah and the son of God. He was a holy man.

There are references to Mary as the one who gave birth to Jesus. There are also references to Gabriel, the angel who helped Mohammed to write down the Koran.

Alisha, the daughter of Pharaoh and the one who saved Moses, Mary, and the daughter of Mohammed are three of the main women in the Koran. The daughter of Mohammed is looked upon as Mary. Her name is Fatima.

The Koran had many references to social life. The prophet always had a great regard for women. A man could have four wives if he were able to look after them and protect them. He was married 12 times. He was using them as a way of fashioning groups together.

Telex–4-forth annunciation and your wife is divorced. In the Koran it is mentioned that a man may divorce his wife after three telifs after three mensural periods. After the third time, he can change his point of view and reconcile.

The woman was important in the family. She can cover herself to protect herself.

A mosque is a place of prostration and a place of prayer. They always face the East and pray.
The Morab is in the direction of Mecca.

Before every Muslim prays, he has to wash his hands and feet.

Muslim did not have a liturgy, sacraments, or priest. An imam is like a pastor. They see the Koran as a sacrament. They have five pillars of faith: “Faith or belief in the Oneness of God and the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad; Establishment of the daily prayers; Concern for and almsgiving to the needy; Self-purification through fasting; and The pilgrimage to Makkah for those who are able.”

One pillar is the Shahadah: There is no god other than Allah. There are prayers five times a day. In the Arabic countries this is very strict. Fasting is enjoyed upon every Muslim. It helps you to orient your mind towards God. Almsgiving is very important. Our treasures don’t belong to us. God gives. Finally, make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Muslim loves to go to Mecca. If you die on your way to Mecca, you would go to heaven.

On the pilgrimage everybody has to wear the same robe. The kalba is the most important stone. It was supposedly given to Abraham. Every Muslim wants to touch it. This is done by touching the person in front of you who touches the person in front of him, etc.

Islam started in 622. This is the beginning of the Islam era. It is the year when the prophet had to run away to Medina. After his death the religion spread far and wide to Africa, Europe, Spain, Persia, etc.
Islam does not allow any visual representation of God or the prophet. Two years ago Newsweek did an article and had a picture of the prophet and this caused riots and many people were killed. Newsweek had to apologize.

Under the influence of the Moslems, we had the iconoclast movement. Many words in English owe their origin to Islam, alcohol for example. For about 600 years it spread rapidly until 1200 when other forces came and decimated the ranks. Internal division was one of the reasons. IN Iraq you have the Sunni.
By the mid 1600 you have the Surlee who dabbled in their own understanding of what is God. They used to wear garments of wool. They became very popular in India. In the 18th century Andra Kahal tried to bring a going back to the original knowledge of the prophet. This group is popular in Saudi Arabia. It is very strict. Some evidence of this was in Afghanistan with the Taliban.

The prophet was compassionate and kind and could be very vengeful. It speaks of one’s relationship with God as being predestined. They believe very much in the last judgement. They don’t have a purgatory. The idea of reward is paradise.

Jihad means struggle. It is an internal, not external struggle. Today it is used in a loosed sense. The enemy is an opponent of your religion, but if you live in harmony with all, that is allowed. Abraham never had breakfast until a hungry man came by and they would have breakfast together. One day he sent away a man who was praying in another language but God asked him why did he do that so he called the man back and had breakfast with him.

The difference is how we understand God. The prophet perceive God in a certain way. This does not agree with the Christian perception. He gave importance to Jesus but not the same way that we do.
There is a feast in which the goat is slaughtered in honor of Abraham.

One person said that the Christians looks upon God as Father and we are adopted children and the Muslims look upon Him as Master and they are His servants. When Mohamed consolidated his religion, the idea was to make Allah the most important god. There was another religion in Persia and many of the ideas of Judaism was borrowed from this.

The issue between Islam and Christianity is not doctrine. Much of it is economic. The crusades were to crush Islam trade. The Portugese went to the East to break the back of the Islamic shipping. Colonization has been the cause of much trouble in our world. These effects are known today. No country speaks favorable of colonization. Ninety percent of Africa was dominated by colonial power.

Ayatollah is a system under Iran because they are Shi’is. They can run for office and interpret the law. In Iran after the fall of the Shah, there was an attempt to have women veiled there. The ayatollah are very knowledgeable of the Koran. The leaders of the Shi’is are called imam. The imam is the only theologian for the Muslims.

There are many break away groups in Islam. They are usually well to-do but very rigid in their interpretation of the law. In Saudi Arabia no kind of interpretation is allowed because the house of Saudi thinks that they are the holders of the law. They are very strict. The Hadith is the complex of law and juris prudence which can be interpreted differently.

Saudi Arabia is owned by the Saudi family, the royal family. There is a lot of unrest there.
In Sudan Christians are being captured and sold into slavery in other countries. Once they are captured, they are branded as slaves and never get out.

There are about 400 million Muslims in the world. The prophet himself believed in tolerance and that God had to be equally accepted.

The enemy of Islam is anybody who makes it difficult for you to preach the world. An imam can be arrested for inciting the people. Iran believes that the birth of Israel is illegal and they have no right to exist and this is at the expense of the Palestinians. Egypt accepted the existence of Israel. Iran and Iraq have not.

In the State of Israel you must be a Jew to be a full pledged citizen. Christians have identity papers. Many Christian converts maintain their Jewish identity. They can’t say that they are Christians but they have to say that they are Jewish.

In Islam women are property. A wife can divorce her husband but she does not have economic freedom that a man has.

In Iraq the majority is Shi’i. The Shunnes are the educated group. The Shunnes are against the constitution. Fr. Charles thinks that this will fail. The Kurds in the north are another group. They are all Muslims. They are a wandering nation. Nobody wants them.