Wright briefs Rotarians on general principles of Islam

When Rotarian Lee Wright was thrown the task of organizing the club’s program a couple of weeks ago, it put him in a tight spot.
His original speaker was set to visit the club in November, but Wright was rescheduled and his speaker could not. So, it fell to Wright to pull something out of his “bag of tricks,” which, if anything, includes plenty of informative military briefings sure to educate the local membership of the global organization.
Wright decided to present an informative program on what has become the world’s fastest growing religion: Islam. Current statistics show the religion is expected to rival Christianity by 2050.
According to the Pew Research Center, Muslims will be nearly as numerous as Christians, who are projected to remain the world’s largest religious group at 31.4 percent of the global population.
As Wright explained during the program, his presentation was neither designed to be pro-Islam nor anti-Islam. Instead, it was merely used for information when presented to troops heading overseas.
For Tuesday’s program, the hours-long presentation was condensed to about 30 minutes and gave a broad overlook of the religion.
Pointing to recent travels by Rotarians to things such as International conferences, Wright pointed out how much knowing about other cultures and religions can aid in groups working together for the first time.
In Islam, Wright explained, there are six essential beliefs. Followers of Islam believe in the oneness of God (monotheism), in angels and spirits, in prophets (including many from the Bible), in books (i.e. the Quran, the Torah and the Gospels), in judgment about your deeds and the decree of God.
Like Christianity, Muslims believe that there is only one God — Allah — who has no equals or partners. He is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful. The difference, mainly, is that God incarnating himself as in the case of Jesus is unthinkable in Islam.
Additionally, Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, is not to be worshipped as he never claimed divinity.
Muhammad, born in 570 in Mecca, was illiterate and was cared for by his uncle following his father’s death months after his birth. He married a wealthy widow 25 years his senior and became a wealthy merchant.
Muslims believe Muhammad, at the age of 40, was visited by the angel Gabriel and received his revelation from God: the Quran. He then began proclaiming the oneness of God and the day of judgment for all.
Muhammad died at the age of 62, but before his passing, he saw Arabia united under Islam.
Muslims also believe in the reality of other spiritual beings and angels. Specifically, they believe in the Archangel Gabriel, three other archangels and a large group of lesser angels.
They believe that evil spirits, or “jinn,” are led by the devil, or “Shaitan.” These spirits can cause physical harm and tempt believers into disobedience.
In regards to prophets, Muslims believe that Muhammad was the greatest and last prophet. Prior to Muhammad, however, there were other prophets.
Twenty-five prophets are named in the Quran, but there are others — the “unremembered” — including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah and Jesus.
While not believing Jesus was the messiah or that he died on the cross, Muslims do believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, performed miracles and ascended into heaven.
Some prophets left books of revelation. These books are used within the Muslim faith. Moses left the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), David left Psalms, Jesus left the Gospels and the Quran, as left by Muhammad.
Muslims also believe that followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism (a religion founded in ancient times by the prophet Zarathushtra, known to the Greeks as Zoroaster) are “People of the Book.”
In regard to judgment, Muslims believe that all people will be judged in accordance with the obedience to Allah’s will and that merely professing Islam is not enough. Hypocrites will descend into hell.
Finally, Muslims believe that what Allah wills will come to pass, and that which he doesn’t, will not. Also, no one can change what Allah has decreed.
Wright spent the remainder of his time discussing the main division in Islam: the Sunnis and the Shi’as (also known as Shiites), which came about following Muhammad’s death.
Also at the busy meeting Tuesday, four new members of the Rotary Club of Crowley were officially inducted and welcomed: Barbara Benson, Nancy Broadhurst, Gwen Foreman and Antoinette Pete.