The United States Promoted Democracy Abroad

The process of revelation consisted of the address of God being conveyed to Muhammad through the agency of the archangel Gabriel. This coiffe is regarded as the central miracle of Islam for there is no other " accounting of how an unlettered caravan merchant of the early seventh nose candy might have been able, by his own devices, to produce a text of such inimitable beauty [and] which stood so out-of-the-way(prenominal) above the ideas current among mankind at that time" (Du Pasquier 53). The create verbally record of these revelations, the Qur'an, is held to be "the full and complete message of the unconditioned Divine Mind to humanity" (Ellwood & McGraw 382). Every word and either stylistic choice is, therefore, a reflection of the divine aroma and the scripture is revered in and of itself. It is complete in the mother wit that Muhammad was the last in the line of prophets stretching back to Moses and Abraham, and including Jesus. wholly these prophets had come before but their revelations were incomplete.

The purpose of the Qur'an is the proclamation of the inwrought unity of God. Unity, "the primary concept of Islam, implies totality" and, for the adherent, Islam "necessarily includes everything which makes up his liveliness" (Du Pasquier 76). Although it also includes the Muslim "view of previous unearthly history" and occasional "instructions to the faithful," it is a work of proclamation, initial and foremost, that tells the people of the necessity of submission to God (Ellwood & McGraw 382). The call to

Du Pasquier, Roger. Unveiling Islam. Trans. T. J. Winter. Cambridge, England: Islamic texts club, 1992.

The traditional life of Islam, as based on shari'a revolves around the so-called quintuple Pillars of the faith: confession of belief, five daily sessions of prayer, almsgiving, fasting during Ramadan, and the journey to Mecca which is known as the hajj. The first pillar's confession of faith consists of say "There is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is the rasul (Prophet or messenger) of God" (Ellwood & McGraw 387). The second pillar, prayer, takes place each day at dawn, noon, later afternoon, immediately after sunset, and at night, usually near two hours after dark.

The purification rite of washing hands, feet, mouth and nose precedes prayer which is carried out while facing Mecca. The focussing of Mecca is indicated in every mosque and, since it must be carried out in an undefiled place there arose the custom of using soulfulness prayer rugs when praying outside a mosque. Prayers are said in Arabic, "the language of Muhammad and the Qur'an" since it is regarded as pointless, and often as sacrilegious, to translate the speech of the Qur'an (Ellwood & McGraw 391).

Although Islamic civilization flourished from the time of the Prophet a pagan decline began after the thirteenth century as the discover by divine law "inevitably made society static [by] putting a premium on deference rather than on innovation and new ideas" (Ellwood & McGraw 395). Thus by the nineteenth century the vast Islamic lands were largely under the dominion of the European powers--with the exception of the Ottoman and Persian empires which were " anachronistic and corrupt regimes" that were, in umteen respects, more oppressive than the European colonies (Ellwood & McGraw 412). In the latter half of the twentieth century, however, Islam underwent a groovy revival as the Muslim nations gained their independence and, in many instances, the common people--long subordinate
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