The documents for chapter nine are significant to Islam, as each contributes their own style or approach to following the religion. Although these numerous voices of Islam are highly valued within the religion, I found that the variations of voices create room for multiple interpretations, in regards to maintaining the guidelines of the religion itself.
The first documents comes from The Quran and conveys the voice of Allah or God. In this case, the words of the Quran are allegedly believe to be the exact words of God, spoken by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. When reading the Quran, I found that many beliefs are similar to that of Christianity; however, the deviations begin when the the voice speaks of good works. The voice in Quran conveys that one must be in constant prayer, must help the poor, and speak kindly to all people. Although these things are valued in Christianity, they are not set in stone as a necessity to fulfill one’s responsibility as a follower of the religion. Another interesting aspect in the Quran is the subject of gender relations, claiming that righteous women are obedient and if they are disobedient than man has the right to “beat them lightly”. I found that aspect a bit disturbing, considering the next lines speak of living not forces women against her will and to live in kindness and equality with her; appearing very contradicting to me.
The second documents comes from the voice of the prophet Muhammad in The Hadith which also left me confused after reading some of the statements about women. “I had a look into Hell and saw that most of the inhabitants were women...” (Strayer 448). That statement stuck me as simply “wow”, I was somewhat speechless in thought; however the following line just confused me even more. “Treat women-fold kindly, for women was created of a rib” (Strayer 448). Once again, I feel as though this document is contradicting, but perhaps I am greatly misinterpreting a deeper understanding. Disregarding the gender aspects, I did respect Muhammad’s vision to live modestly and avoid the materialistic manners or desires.
In the third document the voice of law is represented in The Sharia. This documents was interesting, for I found many of the laws completely random; however, I formed my opinion based on the perception of the twenty-first century, perhaps if I lived in the ninth century these laws would appear more relevant to me. I found the laws of marriage the most spontaneous. For example it is unlawful for one man to marry two women who are sisters, but a free man may marry four women who are free or slaves. Reading this I’m completely lost as to how they articulated such laws, but I suppose it worked for them considering that the religion endured the adversities of time and managed become one of the worlds most prevalent religions.
The fourth document is the voice of the Sufis or “friends of God”. This particular voice is spoken by a poet named Rumi who’s works are popular within the Islamic world. His poetry is so inspirational that his reputation expanded beyond the Islamic world to a global scale. I was surprised to here that Rumi was a best selling poet in the United States; however, once I read his poetry I understood why his works were so well liked. After reading the laws of the Sharia, it was refreshing to read Rumi’s poetry. The laws of Sharia are so exact, so strict, I would imagine that the people would feel fearful of maintaining such laws. Rumi’s poetry takes on a very different approach in expressing how to embrace one’s faith. I really enjoyed reading his poems, and found that the imagery presented in his poetry emitted vibes of positivity and encouragement.
Each one of these documents has their own unique style in conveying the religion of Islam. I find that it is really up to the individual to decipher how to interpret each one of the voices. However I would not disregard any of these documents as they are significant factors that make up the Islamic culture and religion.
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