Islam: Religion, Politics, and Society - Essay Example

Islam: Religion, Politics, and Society Q The Arab people before the rise of Islam were nomads who inhabited the Arabian Peninsula and their means of livelihood involved the breeding of livestock and in some areas of Arabia, which has oases, some of the people indulged in farming. Another source of making a living in that age was for the men of the different tribes to participate in caravan raids in the desert which ensured that their supplies of food and other needs were supplemented. The main system of political organization was based on a kinship ties which were normally extended to create nomadic tribes with a chief at their head. According to the tribal system named above, there was often a committee of those individuals within the tribe who were considered to be eminent people within it who guided other members of the tribe concerning how they could live. In this kind of life, there was no private ownership of land, with the land being owned collectively by the members of the tribe. In addition, there were instances where it was difficult to differentiate tribal and personal property since the watering points as well as livestock tended to be treated as communal property, with no individuals having the right to them over others. The rules concerning how the members of the tribe could live were based upon the way that their ancestors did and there seems to have been very little change in how the lives of the people were conducted (Kennet, 2005). Most of the people in the Arabian Peninsula could not comprehend life outside their tribes because these were often the main source of defense against the harsh life of the desert as well as from any blood feuds with other tribes. This period also saw the rise of the city of Mecca into a center of commerce and this was mainly because of the convenient position it occupied in the Arabian Peninsula. This city can be considered to have been an example of the way tribal life crumbled as previously nomadic individuals chose to settle in this city and indulge in trade. The settled life of its inhabitants, the development of trade, as well as the amassing of private fortunes by individuals is the main reason why the life of Mecca, which had previously been completely tribal, deteriorated to one of extreme individualism (Kennet, 2005). The collapse of tribal life was accelerated through the loosening of tribal ties as individuals became involved in economic concerns as well as the idea of earning more; this ended up replacing the once prominent tribal solidarity that had existed in the city. The life of Mecca was getting more urbanized and this led to the development of a hierarchical structure between the various tribes that lived within the city. Thus, instead of the tribal structure that was based on equality, a separate ruling regime emerged. This new regime dictated that the city was governed by a council whose members consisted of ten members who held diverse leadership functions within the city (El-Rouayheb, 2012). The power of the council members was inherited from father to son and this ensured that the ruling hierarchy remained static since leadership was in the hands of a few families to the exclusion of all others. The Kaaba was a temple in Mecca which was worshipped by almost all the peoples in the Arabian Peninsula, and it is for this reason that the city was considered to be holy land. The merchants of Mecca took advantage of their city’s position to ensure that they developed not only trade ties with the people in the rest of the peninsula, but religious ties as well. The city was at the center of many trade routes, from the north heading south and vice versa, and this was a guarantee that the wealth from the Arabian trade would pour into the coffers of Mecca. In addition, the ruling elite of Mecca encouraged people from all over Arabia to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and this was to ensure that they earned as much as possible from the pilgrims (El-Rouayheb, 2012). The main problem for Mecca during this period was the fact that there was continued looting and robberies by the various tribes on its caravans, which were the cornerstones of its survival as a trading power. Thus, the city developed a reputation for being fierce in the defense of its caravans, and this action ensured that there was a decrease in the instances of caravan raids during that period. As a result, Mecca became the leading city of the Arabia Peninsula not only as a trading hub, but also as a religious center and it is for this reason that it held lose sway over those tribes that had their leading gods in the Kaaba. The period before Islam was one where there were continuing wars between the various tribes in the Peninsula and this was mainly because of the blood feuds that had developed between them for generations. The wars and tribalism that was prevalent in this period can be said to have been extremely disruptive, not only to the social life of the people, but in trade as well. It can therefore be speculated that the condition of life before Islam was ripe for the development of a state which would protect the interests of the people of the Arabian Peninsula (Kennet, 2005). Such a state, it can be said, would be an institution which would ensure that the life and relationships between the Arab tribes would be organized on the basis of equality and mutual prosperity. The various conflicts between tribes had started to shake tribal life in Arabia to its foundations and it was only a matter of time before they would have completely collapsed. It is speculated that had the tribal system collapsed before the rise of Islam, then a society of master and slave would have emerged, where a victorious tribe would have enslaved the people of its foes (Masound, 1999). However, this turned out not to be the case since during this period, slavery was not a basic part of Arabian life. This was because slaves were not considered to be a crucial part of the social development of the people, nor were they essential for production. Instead, slaves were mainly used for the purpose of domestic work, the guarding caravans, and, in some cases, the female slaves were the concubines of their masters. Q.2 Before the advent of Islam, the women of Arabia had very few rights, and in fact, there were instances where they were denied even the right of life. This was in instances where, during famine, it was common practice for little girls to be buried alive in order to ensure that there were fewer mouths to feed. In this society, boy children were priced more than girls, with sons being welcomed with pride while daughters were considered to be children of little importance. One of the greatest legacies of the Prophet Muhammad is that he put to an end the murder of small girls and in addition, established guidelines whose main purpose was to protect the rights of women in the Arabian society. Islam teaches that both men and women are equal before God and it is for this reason that the prophet decreed that women had the right to receive an inheritance from their parents (Miele, 2011). In addition, they also had the right to own property, the right of association and marriage rights, which included their right to initiate a divorce from their husbands. During the early years of Islam, women participated in professional life and in fact, many were prominent businesspeople who had a lot of wealth. Muhammad often encouraged the men in the Muslim community to treat their women well, since; he stated that they all had rights over each other and that it was not right for members of one gender to dominate the other. The exclusion of women from any kind of public life has, for a long time, been a tradition in the Islamic world and this has continued to the present day. This exclusion, although not originally a part of Islamic culture came about after the death of the Prophet Muhammad when men started becoming dominant in public affairs and pushed women to the background. In place of there being a balance between the influence of men and women in society, many societies that practiced Islam came to be increasingly paternalistic in nature. The exclusion of women became a basic feature of social and political life, and became so embedded in Islamic culture after the death of the Muhammad that it became difficult for people, especially those who were conservative, to even consider allowing women to work outside their homes (Dougherty, 2011). In the modern world, however, this view is beginning to change as over the past few years, women have been advocating not only for their right to work but also for their right for getting involved in public life. Women are increasingly becoming vocal and their confidence has further been encouraged by the successes of the Arab Spring, which are making governments, even the very conservative ones, listen to their demands and take action to make sure that these demands have been fulfilled. The conservative elements in Islamic societies are completely opposed to women working outside the home and it is suspected that if they had their way, women would not be allowed to have even a smattering of education to enable them to participate in society. It can be said that with the death of Muhammad, the basic ideals concerning women that had come to be accepted in the Islamic Ummah were discarded and were replaced by a paternalistic perspective which was detrimental. The need to assert male dominance in the society was the driving force behind the social and political exclusion of women, with justification being made from the religious teachings of Islamic scholars (Meijer, 2010). The result was that women in the Muslim world came to be placed in the background of the workings of society and as time went by, it became a basic part of Islamic culture to exclude women. While the teachings of the Prophet stated that women were to be treated in equality with men, within a generation of his death, some of the gains which had been attained by women were lost. However, their most basic rights such as the right to own and inherit property were retained in some societies and this has been the case even in the current world. Thus, one would say that the development of the modern world is again opening up avenues for Muslim women to become active participants in the social, economic, and political life of their societies. References Dougherty, J. P. (2011). Awakening Islam: The politics of religious dissent in contemporary Saudi Arabia. The Review of Metaphysics, 65(1), 166-168. El-Rouayheb, K. (2012). God and logic in islam: The caliphate of reason. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 132(1), 161-164. Kennet, D. (2005). On the eve of Islam: Archaeological evidence from eastern Arabia. Antiquity, 79(303), 107-118. Masound, T. E. (1999). The Arabs and Islam: The troubled search for legitimacy. Daedalus, 128(2), 127-145. Meijer, R. (2010). REFORM IN SAUDI ARABIA: THE GENDER-SEGREGATION DEBATE. Middle East Policy, 17(4), 80-100. Miele, F. (2011). Islam. Skeptic, 16, 22-31,64. Read More