Religion and Theology

Brief history of the Muslim faith
The history of Muslim faith can be traced back to the birth of Mohammad, the major personality in the religion, around the year 570 AD. Mohammad hailed from the clan of Quraish, which was ruling at that time in Mecca. This was a city in the region of Hijaz, north western Arabia. This city was dominated by powerful merchant families. Among these people, the men of Quraish were most dominant. This trend of inhabitation of Mecca by the merchants was due to the fact that this city had become very important during those days especially in terms of trade. This had been brought about by the decline of Arabia (Nawwab et al 2007, Par 1).

Mohammads father died before the boy was born, and his grandfather, who was the head of the clan of Hashim, took over as the male guardian upon his birth. This was because the boys mother, Amina, had died when the boy was six years old. After some time, the grandfather also died and his uncle took over the guardianship according to the custom those days. Mohammad had the opportunity to learn from the hardships of desert life and also acquire the knowledge of rich language which was regarded a pride of the Arabs. He learnt the forbearance and patience required of herdsmen whose life he came to appreciate (Nawwab et al 2007, Par 2).

It was around the year 590 that Mohammad married a merchant widow named Khadijah, whom he had served for some time as her factor. With her, they had two sons, who did not survive, and four daughters (Nawwab et al, 2007 Par 4)

When Mohammad was in his forties, he began to meditate in the caves of Mount Hira, which was just outside Mecca. Then one day while meditating, he heard a voice telling him words proclaim God to be the creator of all men and origin of all knowledge. This message was only given to his wife and those people who were close to him. But he later received more revelations and continued to proclaim the oneness of God to the world and his following grew steadily, initially among the poor, slaves and the oppressed, but later even the rich merchants were converted (Nawwab et al, 2007 Par 5)

This marked the beginning of Islam, a religion of strict observance of the law and the teachings of the prophet. To this day, Muslims around the world believe that Mohammad was the prophet of Allah and follow his teachings strictly for the religion teaches that any disobedience will be punished severely. But this religion, just like all the other religions of the world has not completely resisted change. It has to a significant extent conformed to the social and environment variations for it to survive.

A Changing Religion
Ziauddin Sardar in his article Change is Coming to Islam in the Times of India on 26 December 2009 gives the readers some changes that have been experienced by the religion in different parts of the world depending on the circumstances prevailing in the affected areas. Sardar believes that every law is made to bring justice to both the individual and the society. Any law that seeks success in its implementation must first obtain participation of its consumers during its making. To Sardar, Sharia law is not divine, and it must be subjected to serious thinking (Sardar 2009, Par 7).

In Morocco, Sharia law reflects the kind of law in America. These laws are fair and are constantly subjected to a healthy debate. In this country, a commission which included women was formed to reformulate the legislation based on Islamic principles. The resultant family law introduced in the statute books in 2004 abolished bigotry and bias against women. Today, a woman can contract marriage without the approval of the guardian. Other issues like verbal divorce have bee outlawed and women have the same rights as men (Sardar 2009, Par 7).

In Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. This political party used the standard principles of Islam to rearrange the Islamic politics towards democracy. According to its leaders, Islamic politics had to be based on the concept of Shura, which means consultation, which is a Quranic principle. This meant that they should be both democratic and consensual. Some of the reforms that were introduced included the abolition of death penalty, emancipation of the poor and the minority as well as other several other aspects of human rights which were put in place. The resounding win of the party in 2007 proved the effectiveness of the party in managing the economy (Sardar 2009, Par 4)

In Indonesia, the Muslim organizations which have had followers in millions have insisted that the politics of Islam is not concerned with creating a utopian State where Sharia law is supreme. Their aim is to come up with a civic society which endears transparency, accountability and participatory democracy. According to these organizations, both democracy and Sharia law must evolve to include the masses (Sardar 2009, Par 8)

Sharon Abbas in his article The Changing Face of Islam in Arab News gives an account of Sardar who wanted to show the differences in Islam between countries. He went to countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and Morocco, and for each country that he visited he had a different story to tell about how Islam is practiced. (Sharon 2005, Par 3)

Dr. Muqtedar Khan in Non Violence, Violence, Peace, Justice and Change in Islam believes that change is important in the Muslim world, both socio-cultural and political. To him, this is an uncontested feeling. But his concern is whether this change can be engineered peacefully. He posits that if there has to be any change in Islam, it must be peaceful (Khan 2008, Par 1)

Some sections of the Muslim faithful believe that any change towards what has come to be known as moderate Islam has been funded by the United States government. Abid Ullah Jan in Determined to change the very face of Islam claims that the United States has started a war within the Islam religion to bring change thereof. According to him, the United States government is now happy that the war is ranging and they are achieving their objectives. It is however debatable whether it is the U S that is bringing change in Islam or it is the circumstances surrounding the religion (Ullah 2005, par 7-9).

Politicians and other prominent men and women have been calling for a change in the way Islam operates. Sardar believes that if Sharia law can change, as it has, then everything else is prone to change in Muslim world. According to him, such legislations such as amputating the limbs of thieves and punishing women are bound to change with time. A Dutch politician who by the name Ali and who has a Muslim origin in her collection of essays by the title The Caged Virgin continuously calls for the emancipation of the Muslim woman. She believes that the elements that are treasured by Muslims such as having only one moral source and strict sexual morality are making the Muslim countries lag behind in development (Chadwick 2006 Par 5)

Conclusion
It is therefore important to note that no religion is immune to change. At some point in time, all religions will undergo significant changes in their beliefs and structure so that they can be at par with changes in the environment around them. This has been proven by Islam which has changed greatly in light of the circumstances that surround it.