RDB the Qur'an: representations of God

I agree with Zachary Karabell’s assertion that insecurity breeds hostility (Karabell, pg 330). He speaks of insecurity in terms of hostility in the Muslim world, but insecurity also contributes to racism and discrimination across the world. Perhaps insecurity stems from ignorance and a feeling of estrangement; foreign ideas and different beliefs put people on guard as they turn fear into defensiveness. Last semester when we discussed unity and diversity I remember talking about how maybe focusing on similarities rather than differences would decrease conflicts on both a personal and global level. It is very true that once someone can sympathize with a person or feel connected to them through a common thread, it is harder to hate and dehumanize that person.

Understanding all this, I was surprised that during all the “diversity dialogues” offered in high school (and several in College) I had never learned how the Qur’an includes more the just Jewish and Christian beliefs (I had gathered that much) but that it also prominently includes characters from the Bible. In particular the Muslim devotion to Mary and reverence for feminity surprised me.

((An image of God as Father))
Common exposure to Christianity—on billboards, on plagues, on TV, etc— almost always paints God in a patriarchal way. “God the Father” and “He” immediately come to mind when I think of references to God. I find it very refreshing, therefore, that Muslims often call God Al Rahmin and speak of the Qur’an as “a revelation from the Merciful, the Compassionate” (Qur’an 41:2-8, pg 31). Since Ramin is derived from derived from Arabic word for “womb” these stereotypically feminine traits and name remind us that God has both female and male attributes.

((Interior of the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine in Jerusalem considered the second holiest site in Islam since Muhammad ascended to Heaven at the rock))

((Muqarnas style is a stactite like ornaments that dematerialize space, a decoration unique to Islamic architecture))
Both Christianity and Islam portray God in similar symbolic terms, but Islam, I believe, interprets God through more abstract visual details rather than physical images and icons. The Qur’an tells us that “there is nothing comparable unto God” (Qur’an 112, pg 17) and that “God is beautiful and loves beauty” (Prophet Muhammad, pg 21). It seems, then, that the Qur’an implies that humans can only experience and speak about God in symbolic terms. Indeed Islamic architecture reveals this emphasis on symbolism through “aniconism,” or a lack of configuration, which leads to an overwhelmingly decorative appearance in mosques. The Dome of the Rock (pictured above), for example, contains highly complex mosaics in rich red and yellow tones. Throughout the shrine panels with ornate Arabic script from the Qur’an even speak of a referential dialogue with Christianity and Judaism. It appears that the purpose of such a complex designs is to draw the viewer into the intricacy of the patterns, focusing them on both the glory of God and removing them from the external environment. The mugarnas carvings are another example of this decorative emphasis in Mosques. Rather than painting or tiling a picture of God or other religious figure onto the dome, the architects chose to create a weightless and heavenly space through repetitive design. Meanwhile, Ebenezer Baptist Church showed scenes of religion, St. Mary’s Cathedral downtown showed figures of Jesus and the disciples in stained glass, and Eastern Orthodox relgions hang icons such as the one shown below.

((Greek Orthodox Icon of St. Joseph- Christianity portrays God and Jesus in a more concrete manner))

Thus, it appears that Islam chooses to highlight the abstract, and ambiguous, aspects of religion. After the difficulty we encountered in putting religion into words during our past few classes, I think that perhaps keeping God in abstract terms is for the best. Images can help us learn and understand but can never grant full understanding.

Religion and Knowledge

((Abraham: the father of many religions))
I feel like I have had a generally broad exposure to religion because, until now, I have attended religious schools my entire life. Those schools were even three different religions: one Jewish, one Presbyterian, and one Catholic. Furthermore, my Catholic high school was very liberal in terms of diversity and exposure to different religions. Every year, for example, the school directed a “diversity week” in which speakers from different cultures and religions visited each day. During that week and throughout the year I attended many (often required) interfaith dialogues between religions like Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. During one class of my four years of required theology classes, I also learned about different religions like Mormonism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. I now see that my predominant exposure to religion, however, has been very one sided since the main focus has been on the Abrahamic tradition.
((Images of the Seven Catholic Sacraments))
Even so, I was very surprised at how terribly I did on the “Religious Literacy” test. Even more shocking was that even after four years of constant exposure to Catholicism I could not recall the seven Catholic sacraments on the spot. I almost felt ashamed that I was not an expert on “the ancient stories that continue to motivate the beliefs and behaviors of the overwhelming majority of the world’s population” (Prothero 279). Stephen Prothero’s opinion on the need for knowledge of religion definitely captures the inherent and inseparable link between culture and religion. Knowledge is power and ignorance is a major weakness which can lead to unnecessary conflict.

On the note of understanding different religions, I also think that the way people gain their understanding of religion can drastically affect how they view it. Of course learning about a religion from media, as in after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, can skew perspectives. But I think that even growing up in a religion verses learning about the beliefs and the reason people believe them (from an outsiders perspective) changes views. Nikki, for example, writes about how she was raised Catholic and then came to college and began to wonder why she believed certain things. By no means am I saying that she did not learn the reasons behind her beliefs, but all small children tend to blindly believe what they are told. Perhaps coming to a religion later in life with a more mature perspective, one better understands the reasoning behind beliefs. I know that this was true for me even in high school when I learned a lot about Catholicism in my theology classes. I vividly remember one day my freshman year that one of my good friends at the time grew angry at me when I was studying evolution for biology class. Even though I had just learned in my Catholicism class how religion and science were very compatible, she chose to ignore that belief and stuck with her fundamentalist beliefs about evolution. Although she is Catholic, she ignored the reasoning behind the true teaching on evolution and told me that I could not believe in God or be Christian if I believed in evolution which really hurt my feelings. Since I had learned about her religion from an outsiders perspective, surprisingly I knew more about it than her. That day I also experienced first-hand the pain that religious ignorance can cause.
((Peacefullness—a way of life or religion))
I have been talking about religion through out this entry but what is religion? In class on Tuesday Professor Bump brought up a good point on the generalization of meanings of words. I had the idea of a religion being a set of beliefs and practices which pertained to a higher being. And to me, Jainism at first seemed more like a way to live (like a hippy life-style) rather than an actual religion. Although it strove toward a better life, it seemed contradictory that “absolute Ahimsa is impossible” (117). Looking up the formal definition of “religion” in the online Oxford English Dictionary, however, I find that Jainism in its extreme peacefulness and resistance to violence is in fact a religion since it is “devotion to some principle.” It seemed that the most fitting definition for our discussion of religion is an “action or conduct indicating a belief in, reverence for, and desire to please or a particular system of faith and worship.” Thus, Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all are religions in their own ways.