Islamic mythology
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Myths
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 In its broadest academic sense, the word "myth" simply means a traditional story, whether true or false. (— OED, Princeton Wordnet) Unless otherwise noted, the words "mythology" and "myth" are here used for sacred and traditional narratives, with no implication that any belief so embodied is itself either true or false. |
In its current form, Islam is a religion established by Muhammed, who lived in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. Its sacred book is the Quran. Those who adhere to Islam are called Muslims. Muslims believe that all true prophets (including Moses and Jesus Christ) preached Islamic principles, but that these principles became distorted in the Jewish and Christian traditions; according to this view, Muhammed is the most recent prophet, who restored and completed the principles of Islam. This article discusses some major features of Islamic mythology, the body of traditional stories that belongs to Islam.
Issues surrounding the term "mythology"
In its broadest academic sense, the word simply means a traditional story. However, many scholars restrict the term "myth" to sacred stories. Folklorists often go farther, defining myths as "tales believed as true, usually sacred, set in the distant past or other worlds or parts of the world, and with extra-human, inhuman, or heroic characters".
If "myth", defined by folklorists, are stories both sacred and "believed as true", then the most clear-cut examples of Islamic mythology come from Islamic scripture. However, note that the term "mythology" does not encompass all scriptures. Because a myth is a traditional story, non-narrative scriptures (e.g., proverbs, theological writings) are not themselves "myths".
Note also that the term "myth" may not encompass all stories in Islamic scripture, depending on how strictly one defines the word "myth". One's use of the word "myth" is largely a matter of one's academic discipline. For scholars in religious studies, myths are stories whose main characters are gods or demigods: this definition would actually exclude sacred stories that don't feature God as the centre of attention. Some folklorists restrict the word "myth" to stories that describe the creation of the world and of natural phenomena. By this definition, the Judeo-Christo-Islamic creation story would form a part of Islamic mythology, while the Islamic story of Marium (Mary) giving birth to Isa (Jesus) would not.
In the culture of the ancient Mediterranean world in the context of which early Islam and its legend arose, there often did not exist the separation that exists for many societies in the modern period between fields of history and mythology, or the attempt to discern between objective truth and spiritual truths.
Subcategories
The mythology of Islam can be grouped into academic categories:
- Cosmogonic myths are tales that describe the creation of the world. The Judeo-Christo-Islamic six-part creation account is a cosmogonic myth.
- Origin myths (also called etiological myths) explain the origins of natural phenomena and human institutions. While cosmogonic myths describe how the universe itself was created, origin myths build on cosmogonic myths, describing the creation of phenomena within the universe. The Quran's isolated creation story of God creating iron is an example of an origin myth.
- Legends are stories that take place recently (relative to the mythological age of origins) and generally focus on human characters rather than divine ones; some scholars (for instance, professional folklorists) strictly distinguish them from "true" myths. The story of Abraham almost sacrificing Ishmael is an example of legend.
- Eschatological myths describe the afterlife and the end of the world. The Islamic story of Qiyamat is an example of eschatological mythology: it describes the Day of Judgment, when God will reward the good and punish the evil.
Central Islam stories
Life of Muhammad
Muhammad was born into late 6th-century Arabia. At that time, the inhabitants practiced a polytheistic religion and lived in tribal groups that frequently feuded. Although married, Muhammad retreated into a cave in Mount Hira, in search of enlightenment. While in the cave, Muhammad experienced a revelation: he received the words of the Quran (dictated to him by the angel Gabriel). He returned to Mecca, a cultural centre of Arabia, to spread his message.
Threatened by the possibility of a religious revolution, the Meccan leaders persecuted Muhammad and his followers. Muhammad and his followers eventually fled to a city called Medina, from which they continued to feud with the Meccans. Eventually Muhammad conquered Mecca, converting its religious centre, the Kaaba stone, into the new centre of Islamic spirituality. By the time he died, he had brought nearly all of Arabia into the religion of Islam.
Note that, by some academic definitions, the traditional story about a historical human character like Muhammed would be a "legend", not a "myth".
The Kaaba
According to Islamic tradition, God told Adam to construct a building to be the earthly counterpart of the House of Heaven. This was the giant black stone cube that Muslims call the Kaaba: it stands in the city of Mecca. Later, Abraham and Ishmael had to rebuild the Kaaba on the old foundations.
The Kaaba was originally intended as a symbolic house for the one monotheistic God. However, after Abraham's death, people started to fill the Kaaba with pagan idols. When Muhammed conquered Mecca, he cleaned out the idols from the Kaaba. It now stands as an important pilgrimage site, which all Muslims are supposed to visit at least once if they are able. Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day while facing in the Kaaba's direction.
Connection with Jewish and Christian mythologies
Biblical stories in the Quran
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is a monotheistic religion. It has much in common with the stories and teachings of Judaism and Christianity, but Muslims believe that Muhammed was the final and ultimate prophet in the Judeo-Christo-Islamic revelation. They also believe that the religious texts of the Jews and Christians have been corrupted by the hands of man over the passage of time. Islam incorporates many Biblical events and heroes into its own mythology. Stories about Musa (Moses) and Ibrahim (Abraham) form parts of Islam's scriptures. The Quran retells in detail the Jewish tale of Joseph, who was sold to an Egyptian, and the Christian tale of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In both cases, it adds original details and an Islamic interpretation: for instance, in the Islamic version, Jesus speaks while he is still an infant, and he is merely a miraculously-conceived human prophet, not the incarnation of God.
Linear time
Unlike many other religions, whose sense of time was basically cyclic, Judaism and Christianity labored to preserve a written linear history and mythic timeline, running from the creation to the end of the world. For example, in Aztec mythology the universe is created and destroyed repeatedly, but in Judaism and Christianity, the universe has been created only once and will be destroyed only once, and after its destruction it will be restored to perfection once and for all. Likewise, Islamic mythology has a linear time perspective, running from the creation to the end of the world and the establishment of paradise on earth. Quran 56 describes the end times, the judgment of the dead, and the eternal reward and punishment of saints and sinners -- an eschatological mythology similar to the storyline of the Christian Book of Revelation and to some elements in the Jewish Book of Isaiah and Book of Daniel.
Islamic creation myth
Islam shares with Judaism and Christianity the story of a world-creating divine act, spaced out over six days (or periods of time in modern interpretation). The Islamic creation account, like the Hebrew one, involves Adam and Eve as the first parents, living in an earthly paradise. As in the Hebrew story, God warns Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from a certain tree, but they do anyway, earning expulsion from Paradise.
Islam breaks somewhat with Judaism and Christianity in explaining why Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. In the actual Hebrew account in Genesis, a snake tempts them to eat the fruit. Extra-biblical Christian mythology identifies the snake with Satan, but the actual text of the Biblical story does not explicitly make this identification. In contrast, the Quran states explicitly that Shaitan (Satan) tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. In contrast with Judeo-Christian traditions, which sees Satan as a rebelling angel, Islamic tradition identifies Shaitan with a being called Iblis, who is a jinni, a spirit of fire. In Islamic tradition, angels consist of light and lack free will. In contrast, God created jinn with free will. He told them to bow before Adam, but Iblis refused, claiming that his fiery nature was superior to Adam's flesh, which consisted of clay. God cast Iblis out of his friendship, and in revenge Iblis vowed to tempt Adam and Eve's generations to corruption and to disobey God.
Contrasts with Jewish and Christian mythologies
Isaac and Ishmael
Like Jewish Hebrews, Muslim Arabs trace their ancestry back to Abraham. Like Jews, Muslims believe that Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. While Jews see Isaac as the Hebrews' progenitor, the Muslims trace the Arabs back to Ishmael. However, although agreeing with Jews in terms of ancestry, Muslims shift the emphasis from Isaac to Ishmael. According to Muslim tradition, Ishmael helped Abraham build the Kaaba, and Ishmael's descendants (the Arabs) became the Kaaba's guardians. In addition, while the Bible describes Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice to God (before God stops him), the Quran describes the same story, but with Ishmael as the nearly-sacrificed son.
Mythological beings, places and events
The following are unique to Islam:
- Muhammad - the prophet of Islam.
- Jinn - creatures of fire; along with angels and humans, one of the three intelligent beings created by God
- Kaaba - a large cube of black stone that Muslims visit while on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). In Islamic mythology, Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba at God's request, to serve as the earthly counterpart of the heavens. Adam built the original earthly Kaaba, but Abraham and his son had to rebuilt it.
The following Islamic subjects have some elements in common with Jewish and Christian traditions:
- Beings
- Angels - beings of light that serve as God's messengers; in Islam, these lack free will.
- Jibril - the archangel Gabriel
- Azrael - the angel of death
- Shaitan - the Devil
- Ishmael - the ancestor of the Arab people; brother of Isaac, the ancestor of the Hebrew people
- Places
- Garden of Eden - the Paradise where Adam and Eve lived before their Fall
- Barzakh - the state of the souls of the deceased before the Day of Judgment, when they will be assigned to Heaven or to Hell.
- Jannah - Heaven; the abode of the righteous after the Day of Judgment; at least somewhat identified with the Garden of Paradise
- Jahannam - Hell; the abode of the wicked after the Day of Judgment
- Events
- Creation - a six-part creative act by God.
- Fall of man - the loss of Paradise the resulted from eating the forbidden fruit; like Judaism, and unlike Christianity, Islam does not hold that the Fall made man inherently sinful.
- Qiyamat - the Day of Judgment (and the reward and punishment of the good and the wicked); a fundamental element of Islamic eschatology that incorporates much from the Jewish and Christian traditions