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Reflection Paper. Revised

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Writing
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Moraine Valley Community College
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Reflection Paper
In this course, we learned about the history of Islam. Islamic culture is rich, and even
though I am a Muslim myself, it is still challenging to absorb all this information of religion with
such fascinating history. The virtual classroom and presentations helped me learn the topics since
well as it is easier to learn history by visualizing it rather than just plain reading it. We know that
currently a lot of people have discrimination against Muslims mostly because of the terrorism in
the Middle East and some people don’t understand their customs such as how we pray, how we
dress etc. Before starting the course, I expected to learn a lot even if I belong to this culture
myself and besides, it is also nice to see and hear what scholars and historians can say about my
culture.
Here is a summary of what we learned so far, the Prophet Muhammad was born in 570
AD and he was orphaned as a young boy and forced to live out in the desert on his own however
he was sheltered by his clan especially his uncle who taught him how to survive. Eventually, he
became a merchant trading primarily in and around the Kabah where all nascent warfare of the
Bedouin tribes was prohibited due to the sacred nature of the site. As a merchant, he eventually
was married to Khadijah who was both his wife and mentor who managed her own business.
Eventually, there was a conflict in Mecca when the sacred back stone had to be put back into the
Kabah when it came into disrepair and the 4 tribal leaders could not agree. Muhammad however
was able to find an equitable solution and convinced the 4 tribal chieftains to put the stone
together. The tribal chiefs in turn impressed by Muhammad gave the honor of returning the stone
to the Kabah to Muhammad.

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The beginnings of Islam started when Mohamad had a vision of an angel (said to be the Angel
Gabriel) in the form of a man on top of a mountain cave who instructed him to recite in the name
of God (Allah) and to bring a radical message to the polytheistic Bedouins that “there is only one
God”. Bedouin culture of the time was a very oral tradition as each tribe did not keep written
records of their history, but rather oral records passed from generation to generation and
therefore orators or poets would often be considered as the most important people of a tribe.
Thus, Muhammad through his charisma and oratory skill along with his promise of equality was
able to send the message out to his people. Like well-known leaders of other sects and
organizations, Muhammad had a personality that drew people into him, and this resulted in a lot
of people following him immediately. Muhammad and his group then developed a following
who called themselves “Muslims” which means those who surrender to God. This following
eventually sought to write down Muhammad’s teachings into a book known as the Koran which
promised an afterlife for the good and eternal damnation for the wicked. With regards to this
holy book, a lot of people think that the Koran is an altogether different book from the Bible, but
it has many similarities such as having the same characters from the Hebrew Bible such as
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and even Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mary. Since there are the
same characters, there are also similar narratives such as about the Great Flood, the liberation of
Israel from Egypt, and the life and death of Jesus. With regards to these similarities, it is a
wonder why a lot of Christians and Muslims do not get along well. I think that if more people
know about this then there could be a more mutual understanding between the two religions.
Going back to Muhammad and his cause, all this however presented a threat to the old
ways and so the tribal leaders sought to persecute the Muslims but were not able to assassinate
Muhammad himself due to his uncle`s protection. In 619 AD both Muhammad’s wife and uncle

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Reflection Paper In this course, we learned about the history of Islam. Islamic culture is rich, and even though I am a Muslim myself, it is still challenging to absorb all this information of religion with such fascinating history. The virtual classroom and presentations helped me learn the topics since well as it is easier to learn history by visualizing it rather than just plain reading it. We know that currently a lot of people have discrimination against Muslims mostly because of the terrorism in the Middle East and some people don’t understand their customs such as how we pray, how we dress etc. Before starting the course, I expected to learn a lot even if I belong to this culture myself and besides, it is also nice to see and hear what scholars and historians can say about my culture. Here is a summary of what we learned so far, the Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 AD and he was orphaned as a young boy and forced to live out in the desert on his own however he was sheltered by his clan especially his uncle who taught him how to survive. Eventually, he became a merchant trading primarily in and around the Kabah where all nascent warfare of the Bedouin tribes was prohibited ...
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