Week #4 Post (Chapters 11-13)

Chapter 11:

The most outstanding aspect of Islam to me was how extraordinarily quick it grew, both as an empire and as a religion. It is hard to believe that one man with very little political power could unify warring tribes, conquer Mecca and nearly all of Arabia, and convert most of Arabia to Islam in a little over a decade. It really makes you wonder what type of man Muhammad must have been. Certainly he must have been an extremely charismatic man, while the book also suggests that he possessed military and political savvy.

Beyond the appeal of Muhammad himself, the message of Islam certainly had broad appeal. The notion that no person was inherently superior over another "except by piety and good action" and that "every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood" almost certainly appealed to a large portion of Arabs, as well as many other peoples. This is a big reason for the equally rapid expansion of Islam even after Muhammad's death.

It was also interesting to see how some core values of a religion with a founder (such as Islam and Buddhism) quickly change after their death. The "ideal of a unified Muslim community, so important to Muhammad" broke down soon after his death. Without his leadership and knowledge, various groups tried to take control or believed that their way was the right way. In Islam this resulted in the Sunnis and the Shias. In Buddhism, this similar process resulted in the Theravada and Mahayana forms of Buddhism. On the simplest level, this type of splintering makes sense. Once the founder is gone, there is no single authority to answer questions about the religion, and that leaves a lot open to interpretation by many individuals.