Religion and Theology

In this world and in this earth, we have a god who created the entire world. God sent thousands of his prophets to the earth to let his existences know which their god is. Each Prophet has a successor to continue the Prophets message. There are three religions in this world came from heaven and specifically from the creator of this world. The first religion was the Jewish, second is the Christianity, and the last one is Islam. Each of the previous religions has a Prophet from God. Each Prophet has to tell people who their God is and tell them to pray only to God, not to anyone else. All people who follow their religion only believe that their religion is true. All religions are totally true for who believe in. In this research Im going to talk about the Islam religion, the households of Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Upon him), and their followers, ShiI.

The Islam religion is an Arabic Religion, but that does not mean it is only Arabs people that are Muslims. There are some people who are not Arab who follow Islam, and there are some Arab people who follow other religions other than Islam. Islam means peace in Arabic. According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr Islam considers itself the last world religion on the earth, and there will be no more new religion after Islam in this world. Islam believes and stands on there are no gods but God, who is called Allah in Arabic, and Mohammed, is the messenger of God.

Historically, Muslims have believed that God sent his revelation one final time to Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) and the Muslims community and that they have an obligation to spread the faith. (John L. Esposito) Muslims believe in all previous religions and they also believe in all the Prophets that came before Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) as a Prophet from God, but Muslims believe Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) is the last Prophet in the world and the Islam is the last religion to come from God.

According to the Islamic history, over 1400 years ago, the Islam religion was begun by Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) and it continued until the Prophet Mohammeds death. Each Prophet has a successor. Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) had a successor which is Imam Ali. In fact, Imam Ali was the prophets cousin and a husband of the Prophets daughter Saydah Fatimah he continued to teach the message of Islam to the world with his sons Imam Hassam and Imam Hussain from the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Upon him).

In the first year of the Islamic calendar, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Upon him) while he was praying to God in the Mountain of Mercy which is located in Mecca, Gabriel sent the revelation from God to Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Upon him) and told him that you are the last messenger of Allah, and you have to deliver Gods message to all humans. The message that Prophet had to deliver was the Quran, which is the Gods holy book, and the Islam religion The Quran has Gods words and what is needed in the Islamic rules. The Quran describes all the rules that Muslims have to follow and needed in their life including the Prophets words, which is called Hadith. The Hadith had been written by the prophets successors and friends. They save it for the humans who would come after the Prophet. Moreover, Muslims believe in Torah, Bible, and Quran as holy books that came from God to the humans to let them know who their God is. Also they believe that all the prophets came before Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him).

However, Islam begun in Arabia by Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) and came to Syria, Egypt, Persia, North Africa, north India, and south China by Muslim successors. Before Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) died, he told people after Alhajj in Mecca that the successor after him was Imam Ali and his sons. After Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) died, Imam Ali was trying to collect Quran and Hadith from the papers and put them in one book. At that time, other men were friends of the Prophet tried to get the succession from Imam Ali, and they did. They told people, we are going to solve any problem you have and we are going to spread the Islam to the whole world. Most of people believed them and followed them. These people who believed and follow them are called Sunni at the current time. The people who still believe that Imam Ali must be the successor of the Prophet are called ShiI at the current time.

ShiI Islam bases itself, belief and teachings on the holy book of Quran. Thus it is not very different from the other schools of thought within Islam. This as a fact, makes the ShiI Muslims and other Muslims different factions within Islam and not necessarily different religions. They also have a strong belief on the messages passed by the prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon Him). All these point out to the similarities between the ShiI and other Muslims. The difference sets in when we consider the fact that the ShiI the family of Mohammed, usually referred to as the Ahl al-Bayt, meaning the people of the house and other people within this ancestry, usually referred to as the Imams are charged with spiritual as well as political rule in the community. In general, ShiI has a strong faith of Hadith Al kisaa, which is related to Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him). Hadith means conversation or talking, Al Kisaa means the cloak. The Hadith of Al Kisaa was about the five holy heroes who had been chosen by God. They are Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him), Imam Ali, Saydah Fatimah, Imam Hassan, and Imam Hussain.

One day Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) came to his daughters house and he said to Saydah Fatimah I feel weakness in my body, bring the cloak for me and cover me. She covered him and then, Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain came to their grandfather and they asked their grandfather if they could get into the cloak, and he gave them the permission to get into it. After that, Imam Ali and Saydah Fatimah came to the Prophet (Peace Upon him) and they asked him if they could get into the cloak, and he gave them the permission to get into it. When they all get into the cloak, the Prophet raised his hand to the sky and he said O Allah, these are the people of my household (Ahlul-Bayt). They are my confidants and my supporters. They are from me and I am from them. O Allah bestow your blessings, benevolence, forgiveness, and your pleasure upon me and upon them. And remove impurity from them and keep them thoroughly pure. God accepted what his messenger wanted and God said I have not created the heavens and everything in this life, but for the love of these five lying underneath the cloak. God gave permission to the angel Gabriel to send the revelation to the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him). From Hadith Al Kisaa, the followers of the Prophet Mohammed and his households (Peace Upon them) brought their faith and what to believe of the truth.

In fact, there is an Ayah in the holy Quran, and it talks about Prophet Mohammed and his households (Peace Upon them). Ayah means verse, but Muslims use Ayah only for Quran. This Ayah is talking about the purity of Prophet Mohammed and his households (Peace Upon them). Also, it shows that Allah focused on them, because they were pure from blemishes and from making mistakes. God sent his revelations by Gabriel to them to let them know that God accepted what Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) wanted and God said in his holy book Verily Allahs desire is to remove blemish from you, O People of Household (Ahlul-Bayt) and purify you with a perfect purification. 33 33.

The ShiI follows the five of the Prophets households rules. Also, ShiI follows the nine Imams that came after Imam Hussain, who were son and grandsons of Imam Husain. They are included in the Ayah of the purification. Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) said there will be nine Imams from my grandson Hussains generation, if you follow them you will never lose after me. However ShiI get their knowledge and rules from the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Mohammed and his households (Peace Upon them). Prophet Mohammed said in Imam Ali I am the city of knowledge and Imam Ali is its gate, if you want to get the knowledge come from the gate. What Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) means in this Hadith is, come to Imam Ali he has enough knowledge, so ask him whatever you want. Also Imam Ali said My brother and my cousin Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) taught me a thousand kinds of knowledge and each kind has a thousand chapters of knowledge.

In fact, after Imam Ali died, his sons Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain couldnt teach people and give them the knowledge, because the injustice that they and ShiI faced, such as Ashura the martyrdom of Imam Hussain in Karbala. Moreover, in time of the fifth Imam who is Mohammed Al Baqer, when he became a successor, he opened schools of Ahlul-Bayt and he taught many people in many kind of knowledge, such as Mohammed Al-Khwarzmi, who created Algorithm and Algebra in mathematics science, and Ibin Sina, who was the first Dentist in the past.

However the last Imam, his real name is Mohammed, but the popular name is Mahdi. All Muslims believe in Imam Mahdi. All Muslims groups except ShiI, believe that Imam Mahdi has not born yet. Only ShiI believe that Imam Mahdi has been born and he is still alive. God will make him live on the earth and God will cause him to live in it for a long time. Muslims believe that Imam Mahdi will come with Jesus on the earth and they will make the people equal between each other.

ShiI Islam owes its origin to a number of disputes that took place within the Muslim community during the early days. Shiites harbor the belief that Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Upon Him), had had nominated Ali, who was his cousin as well as son-in-law, to the position of His successor. In great contrast to the opinion of the Prophet, three leaders took this position (al-Muzaffar, Para. 8). They were Abu Bakr, Uthman ibn Affan and Umar. Ali was omitted from this list and was only considered as a caliph later after the assassination of Uthman ibn Affan. Alis authority did not prove to be very popular among some of the Muslims, the most notable among them being Aisha, who was the daughter of Abu Bakr. She engaged his supporters in the Battle of Camel, but lost the battle. A second wave of rebellion, this time under the leadership of Muawiyya, who belonged to the Ummayad clan. This was referred to as the Battle of Sefin. This battle led to the stabbing of Ali to death enabling Muawiyya to replace Ali as a caliph (Hooker, Para. 6). The sons of Ali, al-Hassan together with al-Husayn hoped that the caliphate would be returned to them upon the death of Muawiyya. This was not to be as it was passed to Yazid who was the son of Muawiyya. Husayn chose to mount a series of rebellious activities against the Ummayads but these led to a tragic end when Husayn and his family in the company of seventy followers were captured and killed at Karbala. Shiites gather at the site annually to commemorate this incidence. This is what marked the emergence of ShiI as a religious movement (Amin, Para. 4-5).

In conclusion, from all the Hadith of Prophet Mohammed (Peace Upon him) and what God said in the holy Quran, ShiI follow the leader of religion, Prophet Mohammed and his relatives (Peace Upon them). ShiI now return to scientists in religion which is called Ulama or Ayatollah of what they need in rules of religion and get the new rules for the present time from them until Imam Mahdi comes back to the earth.