Thoughts for this weeks reading 6/17/2015

6/17/15

Islam and the Muslim religion has been a very interesting topic to read and learn about. Muhammad's experience, or revelation that he was the chosen one to be the messenger of god.  When you hear the concept "overwhelming" experience (414), is sounds like an experience that Jesus, Buddha all experience that in some way hard to describe. The belief of their god is beyond anything human, and something that really cannot be defined by a human. The Qu'ran consist of sacred sayings of God through the messenger Muhammad is the core faith in the Muslim community.  Muhammad created a new society for the Islamic community, he wasn’t just a religious leader, and he provided a vision of an ideal Islamic society (418).

History and the process of creating an empire repeats itself, and Arab Empire wanted to be part of the profitable trade routes, increase in wealth, agriculture, military expansion. When leaders change then the empire can be threaten by another leader that may not live up to the expectations of the community. It is amazing that people are attracted to Allah because of the Islamic government provided incentives for claiming a Muslim identity. The individuals/families who are poor, slaves, prisoners of war were one the first groups who converted into Islamic Faith, and in some gave these people a purpose to move on from challenging life, and be part of something with purpose. According to the text, conversion brought social mobility, and it shows that people who believe in faith can come together. The people of the Muslim community is quite diverse, people from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa.

             Pastoral societies differ from agricultural societies is that they were a much smaller society compare to agricultural societies. They lived in encampments, based their groups by Kinship or claimed a common ancestry. Women can be part of a higher status, and have fewer restrictions compare to other societies. Women can initiate divorce, and is largely involved in many roles in Pastoral society. I ponder as to why Americans, or other societies did not put women as one than can be part of higher roles, and proceed with roles of men such as war, hunting etc.

When I think about how people are settled today, we stay in one place with a house no matter how bad or good the weather is, and Pastoral so cites often move based on their environmental conditions.

It is clear that people of history all created something that in some way advances the next era, and we learn from what other societies have done to create communities, and how women were treated. Sometimes I think about what if I was part of that era? Any era.