Comparison of the aspects of individual culture

Islamic Culture

Q1

Personal observations of the article

Name of the article: The Miracle of Al Isra and Al-Miraj

Available at: http://www.aicp.org/index.php/islamic-information/text/english/91-the-miracle-of-al-isra-and-al-mi-raj

In ancient Arabic dialects, the terms Al Isra and Al Miraj intend to indicate the night journey and following ascension of Prophet Muhammad. The mention of Al Isra and Al Miraj is there in the holy book Quran; in Surat al-Isra, Ayah 1 to be precise. In terms of the incidents associated with it, the period of Al-Isra initiates when Jibril came to the prophet with a white animal. The prophet Muhammad named it Buraqq and mounted on it with Jibril and heads toward al-Madinah. In the course of this night journey, the prophet happens to be dismounted from the mule wherever it stops and prayed to the Allah, the almighty of the Muslim religion.

The phase of Al-Miraj initiates after the prophet reaches to Masjid-al-Aqsa and Masjid al-haram and begins his journey to the upper heavens. The rest of the sections of Al-Miraj happen to celebrate the meeting of the prophet Muhammad with Prophet Adam. In cumulative, both the episode of Al Isra and Al Miraj has been intended to indicate the journey and ascent of Muhammad towards heaven. The holy book Quran also has the illustrations of this journey of the prophet towards heaven in the episode known as Surah al-isra.

The significance of these episodes to the followers of Muslim religion lies in the fact that, in these phases, the prophet has uttered several maxims, which is considered introspective and insightful for the human conscience. This has been further interpreted in several hadiths that might share preaching regarding the world in communal harmony. Furthermore, as the article suggests, the speaking of gods, especially in the episode of Al-Miraj happens to be one of the most significant events that the entire Quran have ever came across. Furthermore, it has been sighted in several Islamic almanacs where the Prophet has been exhibited preaching while being mounted in Buraqq.

Q2

Comparison of the aspects of individual culture

Family values

In an empirical tone, the family values endorsed by Islam echoes with any other dominant culture influence; is it Hinduism or Buddhism. For instance, being framed in a patriarchal set up, the male parents have been emphasized and an active male exponent has been considered as the chief of the family (Herbert, 2017). However, as the family values of any other religion, the Islamic families do not mean to undermine the female counterparts of the company. For instance, the grandchildren (in most of the cases) maintain an amicable relationship with their grandparents who have been revered for their wit and intellect.

On the same note, in terms of family values, Islam does not contain any severe enmity with any other religious cultural inclinations. For instance, like most of the other religions, the extended families happen to play a cardinal role in terms of the governing decisions took in the family. For instance, the decisions prior to the education of the children or getting married, the opinions of the extended family happens to portray equivalent impact as the other governing members of the family. Furthermore, each of the exponents of any family has been encouraged to keep an interconnected involvement with the other members of the society (Milani, 2018).

Islamic marriage

In an empirical tone, the marriage in Islam happens to resonate with the common perception that every religion has regarding marriage; that it is a matter of mutual consent and the union needs to be ratified by a social contract. The rituals that will follow after every marriage happens to be identical across the global Muslim communities and both of the exponents of marriage happen to be thought of as mutual protectors (Ratten, Springer, Cham). In the initial phase when it was the inception of the Muslim community, it has been seen that the exponents are quite regressive about their brides since the male counterparts are allowed to be polygamous. This can be categorized as a point of departure where the Muslim religion happens to differ from the other dominant religions.

However, the Muslim community happens to be rigid about inter-cast marriage and are prone to exhibit conservatism regarding those kinds of marriages. In this case, the significantly differ from other dominating religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism as on those religions inter-cast marriage is quite acceptable. In this regard, it can be concluded that, in terms of religious regression, the Islamic community is trailing behind as compared to the other dominant religions. In several treatises on Islamic religious practices, the purpose of marriage has been portrayed as a mean to preserve the individual culture (Young, 2017). Based on that, most of the Muslim regressive peoples happen to consider inter-cast marriage as a contamination of their bloodline. 

Q3

Islam against extremism

In an empirical tone, it can be said that no religion talks about extremism whether it is Muslim or any other. For instance, it was not written in Quran that the Muslims are mandated to use coercion and violence to convert someone into Islam or punish someone for not being docile with the religious rigorous practices (Herbert, 2017). Several fundamentalist within the Muslim community preaches about Islamic extremism and tend to show it as a method to preserve the sanctity of their religion in order to satisfy individual political and religious interests. In order to combat Islamic fundamentalism, several Muslim fraternity unity have formed the Muslim Brotherhood in Ismailia, Egypt following the ideology of Dara Sukoh who wrote Mazma-Ul-Baharain craving for the union of two communities.

Extremism as a personal preference

Extremism is not a preference at all if the motto is to cater an ambience of communal harmony across the globe. Extremism is the weapon of some debauch fundamentalist who covets to wage a proxy religious war in order to pursue their individual interests (Young, 2017). It has been extensively seen that the slogans of Islamic extremism has been used as a subversive political tool to spread notions of fear amidst by deriving the sense of guilt within the citizens simply by preaching that they have been deviated from their religious destinations. The motto of Muslim Brotherhood is to eradicate the notion of extremism and simultaneously create a space of communal harmony.

Bibliography

Herbert, D. (2017). Religion and civil society: Rethinking public religion in the contemporary world. Routledge.

Milani, M. M. (2018). The making of Iran's Islamic revolution: from monarchy to Islamic republic. Routledge.

Ratten, V. R.-R. (Springer, Cham). Islamic Entrepreneurship and Management: Culture, Religion and Society. In Entrepreneurship and Management in an Islamic Context , 7-17.

Young, T. C. (2017). Near Eastern Culture and Society. . Princeton University Press.