Author Archives: hamaty

In reading these two accounts for today, I was certainly exposed to a deeper dialogue about Islam’s grappling with the Christian position of monotheism, despite understanding it and seeing it as polytheism. However, this is not what stood out to me. My attention was captured by one paragraph in the dialogue between Timothy and Mahdi,Continue reading “Are we talking about the same thing?”

These two readings, Aquinas and Kindi, were interesting; however, I found myself quite intrigued with the former. While I was reading through Thomas’s robust philosophical line of reasoning in which he defended God’s nature, the Trinity, and the Incarnation, I found myself certainly engaged in his argument. However, amid these questions, I kept coming backContinue reading “Faith & Revelation”

In reading Warraq and the information on Abd al-Jabbar, I was intrigued by the style of argument, as well as issues raised by Abd al-Jabbar. In reading Warraq, I found it interesting to read the back and forth style of argumentation that we talked about previously, but when I read it this time, I foundContinue reading “Warraq & al-Jabbar”

I found Griffith’s article quite insightful, as I knew little about this topic. What I found most interesting was the problem of the Islamization of Arabic and the attempt to use those same words to apply to Christianity. Certainly, we recognize that language is limited when we speak about God, who remains unable to beContinue reading “Language and Evangelization”

I was surprised to find, for many Christians from the reading, how closely Islam was associated with violence. In the readings, it rarely spoke of their desire to pray (in a way the Christians likely would have been been opposed to) or of much of the actual belief system. Rather, it spoke of condemning theContinue reading “A Relationship that First Knew Violence”

I enjoyed the different perspectives offered in this collection; and while they stress different understands of how Islam fits into society and what the Qur’an says about such a mix, they all operate from a respect towards the individual person. It seems that advancements in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science, achieved by progress inContinue reading “Religion & Governance”

These two articles radically clarified some misconceptions I had about the divide in Islam between Shi’ites and Sunni’s. As someone who is about as informed as the average American on Islam (read: greatly uninformed), I knew that the split between the two sects had to do with Mohammad’s successor. Additionally, I figured that the twoContinue reading “The Great Divide in Islam”

Masud’s article, Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha: Diversity in Fiqh as a Social Construction, closed a few gaps in my understanding that I’ve been wrestling with the past few classes, trying to understand how the way of life from well over 1,000 years ago could dictate how small matters of life ought to be lived today. In hisContinue reading “Fiqh: Getting with the Times?”

In these readings, I found that a number of things piqued my interest. From the Peters reading, I thought that the interactions between the earliest Muslims and Jews were incredibly interesting. In particular, I thought it was interesting that many Jews clung to each other as a people, but, according to this account, were actuallyContinue reading “Qur’an, Muhammad, and Scripture”

From the reading, it is clear that Islam has a long and rich tradition upon which it is based. I was particularly struck by the caution put forth against innovations. Muhammad’s earliest followers found keeping the purity of their religion of paramount importance. For example, as mentioned in the Goldziher reading, when the question ofContinue reading “Hadith, Sunna, & Ambiguity”