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The Essence of Islam
A Sermon Given
by The Reverend Roger Fritts
on February 28, 1999
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
Islamic students in Iran took control of the American Embassy in November of 1979. When I heard the report of the
student occupation of the Embassy, my heart sank. Bob Anders, married to my wife's sister, was on the Embassy staff.
In the newspapers over the next few days Bob's picture and his name did not appear. We had no idea what had
happened to him. A call to Bob's wife Linda, who was living in Athens, was of no help. Linda simply said, "I cannot
talk on the phone about anything."
Was he a prisoner? Was he hurt? Had they killed him? Was he in hiding? Special reports appeared on the news every
night. Americans were blindfolded and put on display for the world press. But no information about Bob was
forthcoming. Three long months passed before he appeared on television, standing next to the Canadian ambassador.
Bob had escaped with five others to the homes of Canadian Embassy staff. They had lived in hiding until they were
able to leave Iran using Canadian passports.
This event and others like it have resulted in a great distrust of Muslims. The American fear of Islam is not unlike the
fear we had of communism during the height of the Cold War, or of Japanese Americans during the Second World
War.
However, just as imprisoning Japanese Americans in the 1940s was wrong, and just as firing government employees
suspected of being communists in the 1950s was wrong, the negative stereotypes we constantly see of Muslims are also
wrong. Imagine what it would be like if we judged all Christians based on the actions of the members of the Ku Klux
Klan. Imagine a world in which movies, novels and cartoons portrayed all Christians as dressed in white sheets,
carrying shotguns, lynching blacks and burning crosses. This is how Western culture slurs Muslims.
Many of you in this congregation have visited Islamic countries. You are aware of their warmth, their generosity and
their hospitality. You have seen their magnificent art and architecture. You know from your own experiences that Islam
is not just an Arabic religion. Ninety percent of the population in Indonesia is Muslim. Pakistan has the second largest
Islamic population, third is Bangladesh and fourth is India. Researchers estimate that more than four million Muslims
live in the United States.
What is the essence of Islam? The answer starts with the story of its founder. Mohammed was born in the year 570
A.D. At the time of his birth the Arabian peninsula was enjoying a period of great economic growth. However, the
weaker and poorer members of society were suffering neglect. Lucky entrepreneurs could make fortunes in the caravan
trade, but the most ordinary people were left out. Many people were out for themselves in a highly competitive,
heartless race for wealth.
Mohammed's early life was not easy. His father died before he was born and his mother died before he was two. He
was raised by a grandfather who died when the boy was six. From that time on Mohammed's uncle looked after him.
He grew up a poor orphan, working as a shepherd in the fields around Mecca. We know little about Mohammed's
youth, except that he developed a reputation as a trustworthy person with a good sense of human relationships. In his
twenties this man, who had no memory of his mother, married a widow who owned a caravan business. His wife was
about fifteen years older than he. The marriage lasted for twenty-four years until his wife's death in 619.
Except for his marriage, we know very little about Mohammed's early adult life. He did increasingly engage in private
religious meditation, including retreats to a mountain cave outside Mecca. Mohammed was seeking a deeper spiritual
experience. One day when he was meditating in the cave he believed he heard a voice. The voice said "Recite!"
Mohammed said that he could not. The voice said "Recite!" again and Mohammed felt a heavy, pressing-down on his
body. Then the voice said:
"Recite! In the name of your God who created humankind from clotted blood, recite! And your God is the most noble,
who teaches by the pen, teaches humankind that which they did not know."
Mohammed saw the source of the command to recite as a gigantic figure on the horizon. Frightened, Mohammed
hurried to his wife to tell her of his experience. According to the story, she became the first to believe and submit to
her husband's revelation. Soon others followed, both within Mohammed's family and outside it. The revelations
continued until the end of Mohammed's life. We know the accumulated revelations as recitations or qurans. They are
called recitations or qurans, both because they were first revealed to Mohammed in recited form and because
Mohammed and his fellow Muslims recited them. Today the collection of these recitations we call the Quran, or Koran.
The call of Mohammed to be a prophet occurred in 610, when he was about forty years of age. Over the next few years
Mohammed rose to become the political leader of central and western Arabia. He taught monotheism, submission to the
one true God. Mohammed said that this God had spoken to Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets in the biblical
record of Judaism and Christianity. He taught that Muslims should believe in the Garden of Eden and in Adam and
Eve. He taught that they should believe in Moses and Jesus, in the Veneration of Mary. He taught that they should
believe in the sacred shrines of Judaism and Christianity, in heaven and in hell, and in the final judgement. He
encouraged his disciples to follow the ethical teachings of both the Jews and Christians. Today a good Muslim is aware
of the historical links of Islam to Judaism and Christianity and treats both religions with respect.
After Mohammed's death in 632, his followers established the five Pillars of Islam. The Quran describes each of them
briefly. The details of the five Pillars of Islam were eventually set down by religious leaders who came after Mohammed.
The first Pillar of Islam is to utter these words: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the messenger of God."
The Arabic proper name for God is Allah. The word Allah refers to the same God as the God that Christians and Jews
worship. Christians, Jews and others agree with Muslims on the first statement, which is an affirmation of monotheism,
"There is no god but God." The second statement distinguishes Muslims, "Mohammed is the messenger of God." It
carries the conviction that Mohammed was a human being who was a messenger of God. To become a Muslim it is
only necessary to say these words with sincere conviction. "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the messenger
of God."
The second Pillar of Islam is the prayer Muslims perform five times each day. The exact performance of the prayer
varies but a general uniformity of practice exists. Thus the ritual prayer binds the Islamic community together across
the ages and across geographical frontiers. The leader's actions serve as the pattern for the series of standings, bowings,
prostrations and sittings that make up a cycle within the prayer. All eyes are directed straight ahead, with the entire
congregation facing in the direction of Mecca.
Muslims observe the prayer at dawn, at noon, during mid-afternoon, just after the sun has set, and in the evening. A
prerequisite for doing the prayer is ritual purification, usually simple washing of parts of the body. Cleanliness is a
pervasive ideal among Muslims.
While Christians gather on Sunday mornings, Muslims throughout the world gather in mosques in the early afternoon
on Fridays. This replaces the regular noon prayer. The practice of observing a weekly worship service at midday Friday
arose because Friday was the weekly market day in the time of Mohammed. People from the surrounding area came
into the city and were available to attend services. Families do not worship together since the men and women line up
in separate rows. Large mosques have three religious leaders: the leader of the prayer, the preacher who delivers a
Friday sermon, and the person who calls the people to prayer. Smaller mosques combine these roles into one or two
persons. Traditional Muslims frown on any use of music in religious rituals. Only Sufi Muslims have developed rituals
involving singing, musical instruments and dance. All Muslims, however, share the expectation that they will pray
facing Mecca five times a day. It is part of the Islamic spiritual discipline.
The third Pillar of Islam is the religious obligation to give money for support of the poor, the debtor, the stranger. This
is not considered optional charity. It is an obligation of service to God. The Quran compares the gift of money with a
loan given to God that God will repay many times. To give money to the less fortunate is to worship God. In
Mohammed's lifetime this developed into an Islamic welfare system in which those who had more income shared with
those who did not have enough. Today in most places in the Islamic world, modern secular states have replaced the
traditional sharing of wealth with national taxation and welfare systems.
The fourth Pillar of Islam is the fast. During Ramadan, from dawn until dark, Muslims may take no food, drink,
medicine or engage in sexual activity. They should avoid indecent talk, gossip, slander and anything else that would
cause anger or grief to anyone or might arouse passion. In the evening they can eat and enjoy marital relations, and
before dawn they eat a meal for the day. The rules of Ramadan excuse the ill, children and the aged from the fast.
Muslims borrowed the idea of a fast from the Jewish tradition of a fast on the Day of the Atonement.
The fifth Pillar of Islam is the great pilgrimage to Mecca. This is the only Pillar not absolutely obligatory. Moslems
should travel to Mecca if they are physically able to make the trip and can afford it. In recent times nearly two million
pilgrims each year make the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. They cannot establish any differences in status and wealth,
because each pilgrim dons a white, seamless garment. They experience the thrill of seeing, hearing, and meeting fellow
believers of all races and languages and cultures from the corners of the globe. According to Islamic tradition, Mecca is
where Adam and Eve lived and where Abraham and his son Ishmael built the first house of worship. It is also where
Mohammed often prayed.
The role of women is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Islam. Most historians agree that the Quran improved
the rights and living conditions of Muslim women over those of women of pre-Islamic Arabia. The Quran in many
places prescribes equality between men and women concerning basic religious duties and rituals. During Mohammed's
lifetime women worshiped in the mosque and went around in public unveiled. The Quran encourages modesty in dress
and behavior for both women and men, but it does not require either to wear veils. Long before the time of Mohammed
people living in communities in Mesopotamia, Persia, and Syria had established the practice of women wearing veils.
When Muslims embraced the practice, it was because of the influence of these cultures.
During the last twenty-five years increasing dissatisfaction among traditional Muslims with their secular governments
has caused a resurgence of Islam that has taken a variety of forms. Within this context, westerners have begun to apply
the Christian term "Fundamentalist" to Muslims. The Islamic revolution best known in the West was the clerical
takeover of the government of Iran in 1979, when the takeover of the American Embassy occurred. Because of events
like this, many in the United States have come to equate Islamic with terrorism.
This is a serious misconception. The vast majority of Muslims who hold what we might call fundamentalist beliefs are
not proponents of violence. Most followers of Islam are not monsters, but human beings like us. Like us they follow an
ethical code grounded in the teachings of Judaism and Christianity.
The essence of Islam is contained in the five Pillars of Islam, which together form a spiritual discipline.
- The first is sincerely to say these words: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the messenger of God."
- Second is to pray five times each day.
- Third is the religious obligation of giving money for support of the poor, the debtor, the stranger.
- Fourth is the obligation to fast during Ramadan.
- Fifth is the religious obligation to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The pilgrimage to Mecca is what we night call a spiritual experience. One American Muslim who made the pilgrimage
a few years ago put it this way:
Reaching Mecca was only the beginning. The goal of the hajj was to perform it well. The rites were hard, sometimes
unfathomable -- like living. Yet they provided a counterweight to the usual view of life as a dog-and-cat fight.
Elsewhere, except at the best of times, every person looked out for himself. During the hajj, people looked out for each
other. The hajj is a shared rite of passage . . . In that way it was like an act of love . . . [and] It provided a service
missing in the West . . . it offered a climax to a religious life.
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