Islamic Culture in the Middle East-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss how these two scholars focus on Aisha in the context of the emergence of Islam, as a religious tradition, and vis--vis historical perspectives and questions. Answer: Religion is a subject that is taken with much weight in the society as it represents peoples believes concerning their ways of life and the way they relate to each other. Islam is one of the worlds leading religion after Christianity that has many followers from different regions all over the world and making significant impacts in the society (Al-Thani, Moore 192). Islam has many theories that explain its evolution and growth across the globe including the important events, people, and items that were crucial for its evolution. Muhammad, Aisha, Fatima, Hadiths and many more names are relevant in explaining the growth and development of the Islamic culture (Aslan 501). Aisha was an essential figure in the spreading and adoption of the religion as she was the wife of the great prophet Muhammad and also a creative writer and translator. Throughout her life before and after the death of the prophet, she acted as a medium of spreading Islam. Many authors have different approaches to explaining Aishas contribution to the society regarding the growth of the Muslim community. Her bibliography describes all the activities she has done towards the Islam community and their impacts towards her reputation and position. She represented the female figures in the society, and her different inputs defined the feminist view of the population in context (Khan, Farooq, Hussain 22). Some books and journals focused on her skills in the creative literature that lead to the translation of the Hadiths for native to understand more. She was famous not because of her position as the wife of Muhammad but because of her skills in Islamic literature (Jaschok, Shui nd). Other books focus on the impact she made as a Muslim leader. Her position of leadership impacted differently on people as the society did not recognize women leadership. She therefore portrayed the strength of women and greed for power to others. Regardless of the peoples take on her contributions, the truth is she was excellent influence towards Islam growth. According to the analysis by Roded (231), Aisha concentrated on fictional work that explained the experience of Islamic women. She used her personal experiences in her stories including the influence of French Colonials in Algeria and the types of activities that women went through during these times. In her writing, she revealed the chaining attitudes of women regarding Islam and the events facing them at the time. She used the bibliographies of Prophet Muhammad and his daughter Fatima and related them to the evolution of Islam especially on the situation of women. The deaths of the prophet and his daughter defined womens role in the society including. One of her writings, Far from Medina explains that women were once strong and more aware of their rights. Feminism was, therefore, a major point that influenced the way Aisha made her efforts towards the evolution of Islam. Roded (229) describes her writing and interpretation skills as the main method that Aisha can be remembered when it comes to the growth of Islam as she made a lot of changes to the society with her skills. (Keddie, Baron nd) On the other hand, focus on the aspect of power and the way Aisha used her position to influence the society either positively or negatively. People recognized her as the wife to the great Muhammad, and due to this, she experienced privileges of her marriage even after her husbands death. These authors feel like more of her impact on the Islamic nature is because of her marriage to the great prophet. After his death, she began to portray her power by political succession and participation that was received differently. The young widow became publicly recognized after she participated in the Battle of the Camel (Al-Thani, Moore 196). Most people especially men to this act negatively as they found the act inappropriate for a woman. Women, however, realized that they could get involved in political activities just like their men counterparts. This book is, therefore, two-sided by describing Aishas life as mostly a public and political figure. Criticism on womens part icipation in power positions increased during this time and was considered by some to be a taboo. Feminism also thrived, and most women showed interest in power positions and to have some power over their lives and families (Eberhardt, Teal, 123). All in all, Aisha contributed much through her political life by changing the perspective that traditionally the society had towards leadership. Taking Ahmed and Rodes case into consideration, Islam is a religion that thrived fast through the influence of high religious leaders who had the power to influence an enormous audience all over the world. I find it appropriate to say that Aisha is one of the most significant contributors towards the growth of early Islamic believes. She was not considered as vital as the Prophet Muhammad, but according to my observation, she did just as much (Omair 136). Being the wife of the most important prophet in the Muslim culture, she had a voice in the society despite all the challenges and limitations due to her gender. 40 years later after the death of Muhammad, Aisha was still making an impact on the development of the Islamic religion. She used her power to enlighten women in the society who were always considered as inferior. Her creative nature and understanding of the Quran and other Islamic scriptures also helped the uneducated population to spread Islam. She was the female represent ation of the Islamic culture with many of the activities she conducted throughout her life focusing on women (Bajaj et al. 508). References Al-Thani, Aisha, and Judy Moore. "Nondirective counseling in Islamic culture in the Middle East explored through the work of one Muslim person-centered counselor in the State of Qatar." Person-Centered Experiential Psychotherapies 11.3 (2012): 190-204. Aslan, Reza. No god but God: The origins, evolution, and future of Islam. Random House, 2011. Sidani, Yusuf. "Women, work, and Islam in Arab societies." Women in Management Review 20.7 (2005): 498-512. Bajaj, Sarita, et al. "South Asian consensus statement on women's health and Ramadan." Indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism 16.4 (2012): 508. Eberhardt, Markus, and Francis Teal. "Econometrics for grumblers: a new look at the literature on cross?country growth empirics." Journal of Economic Surveys 25.1 (2011): 109-155. Jaschok, Maria, and Shui Jingjun Shui. The History of Women's Mosques in Chinese Islam. Routledge, 2013. Keddie, Nikki R., and Beth Baron, eds. Women in Middle Eastern history: Shifting boundaries in sex and gender. Yale University Press, 2008. Khan, Bilal, Ayesha Farooq, and Zareen Hussain. "Human resource management: an Islamic perspective." Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration 2.1 (2010): 17-34. Omair, Katlin. "Typology of career development for Arab women managers in the United Arab Emirates." Career Development International 15.2 (2010): 121-143. Roded, Ruth. "Recreating Fatima, Aisha and Marginalized Women in the Early Years of Islam: Assia Djebar's Far from Medina (1991)." Hawwa 6.3 (2008): 225-253.