A History of the Arab Peoples
Albert Hourani
Number of quotes: 6
Book ID: 7 Page: 7
Section: 2E3
...the sixth century, ......memories of the pagan gods still haunted the temples turned into churches
Quote ID: 107
Time Periods: 456
Book ID: 7 Page: 15
Section: 2E3
...the first biographer whose work we know did not write until more than a century after Muhammad’s death.
Quote ID: 108
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 7 Page: 19
Section: 3A2A,3F
In 632 Muhammad made his last visit to Mecca, and his speech there has been recorded in the traditional writings as the final statement of his message: ‘know that every Muslim is a Muslim’s brother, and that the Muslims are brethren’; fighting between them should be avoided, and the blood shed in pagan times should not be avenged; Muslims should fight all men until they say, ‘There is no god but God’.
Quote ID: 109
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 7 Page: 55
Section: 2B2,2E3
Although Muslims regarded Muhammad as a man like others, the idea became accepted that he would intercede for his people on the Day of Judgement, and Muslims would visit his tomb in Madina during the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Shi’i imams, particularly those who had suffered, attracted pilgrims from an early time; the tomb of ‘Ali at Najaf has elements dating from the ninth century. Gradually the tombs of those who were regarded as being ‘friends of God’ and having powers of intercession with Him multiplied throughout the Muslim world; no doubt some of them grew up in places regarded as holy by earlier religions or by the immemorial tradition of the countryside.
Quote ID: 110
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 7 Page: 156
Section: 2E5
The ‘friends of God’ could intercede with Him on behalf of others, and their intercession could have invisible results in this world. It could lead to cures for sickness or sterility, or relief of misfortunes, and these signs of grace (karamat) were also proofs of the sanctity of the friend of God. It came to be widely accepted that the supernatural power by which a saint called down graces into the world could survive his or her death, and requests for intercession could be made at his or her tomb. Visits to the tombs of saints, to touch them or pray in front of them, came to be a supplementary practice of devotion, although some Muslim thinkers regarded this as a dangerous innovation,....Just as Islam did not reject the Ka‘ba but gave it a new meaning....
Quote ID: 111
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 7 Page: 158
Section: 5A
Who had the right to interpret the message conveyed in the Qur’an and the life of Muhammad? For the Shi‘is, and the various groups which sprang from them, authority lay with a line of imams, infallible interpreters of the truth contained in the Qur’an. From early Islamic times, however, a majority of Muslims in the Arabic-speaking countries were Sunnis: that is to say, they rejected the idea of an infallible imam who could, in a sense prolong the revelation of God’s Will. For them, that Will had been revealed finally and completely in the Qur’an and the sunna of the Prophet, and those who had the capacity to interpret it, the ‘ulama, were keepers of the moral conscience of the community.Pastor John’s Note: Like Catholic /Protestant!!
Quote ID: 112
Time Periods: 7
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