Islam Religion Field Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Islam Religion Field - Research Paper Example It is partially due to the very reality that faith in the Supreme Being is in the basic human instinct, which could not be denied or ignored altogether. â€Å"The critical difference between a religious and non-religious person is the acceptance of the transcendent, or otherworldliness, as the first reality. The transcendent provides a vehicle for meaning outside life itself and because, to the religious person, it has ontological primacy over the material world it provides a solid grounding.† (Prevos, 2005:3) Hence, religion gives meaning to human life, by making people oriented with the morality, ethics, values and systematic patterns of acting, reacting and behaving while entering into interaction with the social and natural environment. Thousands of religious belief systems exist on the face of the mother-earth, which maintain several similarities and differences from one another in nature, scope and teachings. In the long list of countless beliefs, Abrahamic faiths, inclu ding Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are quite distinguishing ones from the rest, and seek inspiration from one and the same light. Not only this that the Holy Scriptures of these three faiths narrate the same tales, but also all the three share one and the same mythology including the Oneness of God, existence of the holy prophets, angels, heaven and hell, Day of Resurrection and life after death., and reward and punishment on the concrete foundations of the deeds and misdeeds performed and committed respectively during their stay on earth as mortals. Although the Abrahamic religions are similar to one another in different ways, the followers of these faiths abhor each other and observe serious reservations on the basis of the misconceptions they have developed for one another without conducting any in-depth research on the philosophy and doctrine of purported rival faiths. It is therefore all the three Abrahamic faiths appear to be at daggers drawn against one another, where slig htest space of displaying tolerance towards one another has turned out to be a dream particularly during the contemporary times. The same was the situation with me, as being the true follower of the Christian faith, I viewed Islam as the religion consisted of extremists and fundamentalists, which condemned and censured people’s mixing up with the Jews and Christians as well as developing cordial social and corporate relationships with them at any cost. I also view the Muslims as hard-hearted nation, which looks down upon the others by declaring them pagans, atheists and infidels. Keeping in mind all these reservations, I decided to attend a religious gathering arranged and organized by the Muslims for some spiritual and moral purpose, so that I could have personal experience of the teachings and behavior adopted and observed by the Muslims. Though I had developed the very idea that interviewing some religious person at an Islamic center might bring some alteration in my estab lished onion about the Muslims, yet attending of the gathering brought revolutionary changes in my views about the community I had maintained serious reservations in past, and I returned from there carrying new image about Islam and Muslims at large. Last week I visited a mosque, situated in my city during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month according to the Islamic calendar. The month is reserved for fasting, and the Muslims keep fast the entire month from dawn to the sunset. However, the Shiite Muslims break their fast after ten minutes of sunset, as they argue that the sunset completes after seven to ten minutes of the apparent disappearance of the sun. Somehow,