With over one billion followers, Islamic religion has grown to be one of the largest regions in the world. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Their main scriptures are Quran. Muslims believes in the existence of one God (Allah) and Muhammad as His prophet. Women are currently holding religious titles in Islam and political positions. In Islam, women are not inferior or unequal to men. It recognizes women’s full personhood. The perspectives of Islam on the evolution of ideas are diverse. Some Muslims find it difficult to reconcile the concept of evolution with their faith while others have generally adopted a positive approach toward science. The religion system of American Indian belief and ritual is as many as the tribes that inhabited North America. The American Indians attitude is animated by divinity. Hence animals, places and ordinary people are divine. Their beliefs are deeply rooted in their histories and culture. American Indian religion has no concept of heaven and hell but there is one common aspect of the spirit of a person to continue living after the physical death and journeys into the afterlife (Argyle " Benjamin 24). Therefore, this paper seeks to compare and contrast American Indian and Islam regarding divinity, beliefs after death, stance on women, the evolution of ideas and main ideas.
Beliefs after Death
The concept of life after death is an important part of a person’s identity that continues to manifest after the physical death. The significant aspect of a person that lives on after death may be some partial element according to various ideas concerning life after death. Different ideas of American Indian religions demonstrate that the entire soul of an individual may not confer personal identity. Some Native Americans believe that the continued existence of life after death takes place in a spiritual realm and others hold that a person may reincarnate in this world and start a life cycle again without the memory of what he or she has done in the past. In this latter view, the death and rebirth may occur continuously until a person enters a spiritual realm. Some Native American tribes don’t believe about the life after death at all because the souls of the dead are reincarnated as the new infant of their clan or family (Argyle " Benjamin 26). On the other hand, Muslims believe that a person goes to a specific plane of existence after death, as determined by God, in regards to his or her actions or beliefs during life. In the Quran, God warns those who do not believe in the afterlife to receive grievous punishment (Ali 17). Ali holds that the resurrection that will take place during the last day is physical “couldn’t they see that God who was able to create heaven and earth is able to create the likes of them?” (17). In contrast to the American Indians belief systems, Islamic religion does not believe in the systems of reincarnation. In Islam, the nature of life after death is determined directly by the beliefs of the individual rather than through the decision of a different being. However, both of these religions believe that the status of an individual in the life after death is a punishment or a reward for his or her conduct during life.
Divinity or Views of God
Islam religion is monotheistic while American Indian religion may be monotheistic, polytheistic, animistic or combination of individual tribes. All Muslims believe in one God. Muslims view God (Allah) as the creator of the universe and has power over everything within it. The main pillar of Islamic belief clearly indicates that only God is worthy of worship. It is considered to be a great sin in Islam to associate partners with God or attribute qualities of lesser being to Him. Ali quotes that “there is no other god but Allah, the watchful and ever living. None can intercede with Him except by His leave. Nobody can understand His knowledge except His will…”(22). Today, most American Indians believe in one God as they become Christians and hence, monotheistic. However, unlike Muslims who have one name for the God known as Allah, American Indians have different names for God or supreme spirit according to different tribes and cultural regions. For example, the Lakota, who inhabit in the plains, refer to the Supreme Being as Wanka Tanka, referring to the highest aspect of divinity. The Lakota people from east and North of the plains refer their creator as Kitchi Manitou and so on. Some American Indians believe in other gods such as such as Yaya the supreme God, Atabey, the mother goddess of fresh water and fertility and Yucahu, the masculine spirit of the fertility in Taino mythology (Fielding 2). Both Islam and American Indian believe in the messengers and prophets of God. For example, Islam has Prophet Muhammad who is also a messenger and many more while American Indians have a messenger called a shaman.
Stance on Women
Today, women have become active participants in economic, grassroots organizations, development projects, charitable associations, political projects and health. Polygamous marriages are becoming difficult or illegal due to modern reforms that allow wives to go to a religious court for a divorce. The modern reforms justify women to contract themselves in marriage demanding husbands to find accommodations for a divorced wife while she is taking care of the children. In Islam, women are significantly equal to men before God and they are supposed to carry out the same obligations of faith, prayer, worship, fasting, charity work and a trip to Mecca. The position of women has generally improved in Islam, as it recognizes women’s full personhood. Islamic law guarantees women the right of inheritance, owning and managing the property. It also emphasizes the predetermined nature of marriage requiring dowry to be paid to women instead of her family. Quran distinguishes women who are pledged an oath of allegiance to Mohammad without their male kin. There are several examples in the early history of Islam of Muslim women have been participating in prominent public life tasks such as wealth businesswomen, queen and so on (Argyle " Benjamin 27). Similarly, American Indian women have become an integral part of tribal society. They are cultural bearers, life-givers and the caretakers of Native people. Buddhism called Theravada American Buddhism, like Islam, expresses an assumption that women have moral equal spiritual growth despite their origin, caste or status (Fielding 4). Today, the Native American women have made up the largest religious group in America. Therefore, like Muslim women, the religious beliefs have shaped Native American women in every aspect of their lives including their attitudes toward body and sexuality, choices about structuring their time and their understanding of suffering.
Main Ideas
American Indian religion is a wide subject that comprises rituals, ceremonies and practices of Native Americans. The religion is characterized by the beliefs that all things, animate and inanimate, have spirits. The Native American religion and religious beliefs are mainly based on natural phenomena such as rivers, mountain, lakes, rocks and clouds, the natural world of animals, herbs, plant, insects, trees and birds and the environment. American Indians living are connected intimately with the dead, souls or spirit. They believe that spirits do not exist only in human but also in mountains, animals, trees and animals. American Indian religion is highly localized in regards to the traditions of various tribes. Hence, it is not possible to define American Indian religion fully. In American Indian religion, there is an animal spirit that walks through the life of a person to teach and guide him as well as protecting him (Brumble 232). The belief of spirit is other things, apart from human being, old Arabian superstitions persist in Islam. Yusuf says “As in Europe beneath a superficial layer of Christianity a faith in witchcraft and magic, in demons and ghosts have often subsisted and even thrived among the ignorant and weak, so it has been and so it is in the east”(402). While the Islamic religion and religions are based on five pillars of Islam which include prayer, faith, almsgiving, pilgrimage to Mecca and fasting. In Islam religion, livings are not connected with the dead or soul. Islam believes that death is a complete termination of worldly life and beginning of life after death. Death separates body and the soul and its transfer from this world to the afterlife.
Evolution of ideas
While some Islam accepts that faith and science can be integrated and complement each other some American Indian religion rejects the scientific theory of creation and other scientific ideas of human creation arguing that American Indians originated in North America (Brumble 234). Most of the Muslims around the world believe that human being and other living things have evolved over the time and others believe they have always existed in present form. Muslim activists have accepted the element of evolution, creation and the theory of evolution. Ali states that “ before heaven and earth being parted, they were of one piece then God appointed an orbit for both sun and moon to create the cycles of day and night and placed the sky above the earth as a roof” ( 51). Islam believes that only water has unique properties necessary for the emergence and development of life. Similarly, American Indians believe that water is used to form the earth or rebirth the earth. Most of the time in American Indian creation stories is like the story of Noah and the ark in the Bible, the water is used to cleanse the earth and re-purify.
Conclusion
The two religions that the paper has addressed include American Indian and Islam. The covered topics include divinity, beliefs after death, stance on women, the evolution of ideas and main ideas. Islam believes in one God referred to as Allah hence, monotheistic while American Indians believe in Great Spirit who is the Supreme Being and other spirits in animals, birds, lakes and so on hence, monotheistic, polytheistic and animistic. Both Islam and Native Americans believe about life after death. They also believe that the status of an individual in the life after death is a punishment or a reward for his or her conduct during life. However, while American Indians believe the dead may reincarnate in this world and start a life cycle again, Islamic religion does not believe in the systems of reincarnation. In both religions, women have equal spiritual growth as men, today. Islam accepts that faith and science can be integrated and complement each other while American Indian religion rejects the scientific theory of creation and other scientific ideas of human creation. However, both of them believe that water has special elements necessary for the creation of a new thing.
Works Cited
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. The Holy Quran English Translation of the Meanings.Digital Deen Publications (PublishDrive), 2016.
Argyle, Micheal, and Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi. The psychology of religious behavior, belief and experience. Routledge, 2014
Fielding, Julien R. “ Native American religion and film: interviews with Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie”. Journal of Religion " Film, vol. 7, no.1, p. 2-15, 2016.
Yusuf, Muslim Eneborg. The Quest for Disenchantment and the Modernization of magic, Islam and Christian Muslim relations, vol.25, no.4, p.400-419, 2014
