Assignment 6 for Introduction to Religion - REL 107 - Dr. Rollinson's courses and resources

Dr. Shirley's Web Courses

Because Islam arose in the Arab culture, the texts and terms used were originally written in Arabic. Arabic uses a different alphabet to the Latin alphabet used by English-speaking cultures. There are some sounds and letters in Arabic which do not correspond exactly to English; also there are various dialects of Arabic, in which words are pronounced differently. Hence, when Arabic words are transliterated into English, the spelling may vary - so Koran or Quran refer to the same book, Salaam or Salam both refer to the same quality (peace), Mohammed may also be spelled Muhamed, Mahomet, and Moslem may also be spelled Muslim, Musselman.
When reading Islamic material, one sometimes meets the abbreviation "pbuh" after the name of God, or of religious leaders such as Mohammed, Moses - this refers to the standard phrase "peace be upon him"

Go here for Links for this week
Useful articles can be found by using the Topics as search words in Search Engines such as MSN, Dogpile, AltaVista, or Yahoo
Remember - always cite your sources

According to the textbook, what is the meaning of Islam, and the meaning of salaam
When did Mohammed receive revelations from God, and what is the name for this collection of material
What is the Hadith
How does the Quran view Jews and Christians
What are the "Five Pillars of Islam"
What are some of the major differences between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam (you may have to use some of the InterNet resources)
What are some of the main ideas of Sufism
How does Islam view Mecca and the Kaaba
Describe the main features and functions of a Mosque
What are some of the meanings of Jihad
What is the Hajj, and how is it performed
What is Ramadan, and how is it observed by Moslems - see "An Idiot's Guide to Ramadan" in the InterNet resources
Mini-Essay (at least one page) - Write an account of the life of Mohammed

Remember to cite your sources

Use MSWord or a text editor such as Notepad to prepare and save your work, then send it as an Attachment to, or pasted into, an email message to Dr. Rollinson at rel107@hellokitty.com, rel107@mail2world.com, and rel107@catholic.org.
Please use all 3 email addresses in case any of the mailboxes go down.

Department of Religion
ENMU
Portales, NM 88130

Last Updated: August 20, 2007