Customs And Laws Of Judaism And Islam Religion Essay

Religion still commands a huge presence in countries throughout the universe in today ‘s twenty-four hours and age ; and even though it has evolved throughout the centuries, in tandem with societies and civilizations, it still remains a steady and specifying focal point in many states. The assortment in faiths necessarily leads to there being legion attacks and rites associated with linking to the Godhead Absolute ( Gwynne 2009, p. 321 ) . Be it prayer, worship, or the recitation of spiritual texts, most faiths conduct meetings and assemblages in edifices that are specifically designed to suit the faithful and supply them with an equal infinite where such rites can be practiced and expressed. There are presently rather a figure of faiths, some of which are spread outing and others decreasing in Numberss. Two of the faiths that this essay will concentrate on are both Abrahamic in beginning and are therefore closely related, but behind the looking similarities of Islam and Judaism, there lay many differences in their several houses of worships, viz. mosques and synagogues.A

Overview

The English word mosque comes from the Arabic word musjid, which means “ topographic point for ( ritual ) collapse ” ( Bussagli 2005, p. 48 ) . Mosques can function many maps, among them being it functioning as a house of worship and a rallying point for Muslims in little communities, where Moslems can pray particular supplications such as the Friday ( jum’a ) and funeral ( janazah ) supplications. A mosque can besides function as a madrassah ( school ) , where Muslim bookmans and their students study spiritual Bible and analyse spiritual instructions in item. They besides serve several societal maps. At a mosque, one can pay ritual alms-givings, or Zakat. During Ramadan, community mosques host breakfast repasts, or iftar, which are held between the first call to the Maghreb supplication, and the 2nd call to prayer, or iqamah, which precedes the supplication itself. Many mosques can besides host societal events, like fundraisers, bazars and community meetings, particularly in particular vacations like Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha.

The temple, or shul in Yiddish, is a symbolic Judaic edifice. They come in many assortments that are non excessively different from each other. All of them serve as houses of worship, and have a particular infinite for communal supplication. Like the mosque, it can besides function as a topographic point for analyzing spiritual text, except that it is done in a separate room, or beth Midrash, inside the synagogue alternatively of the broad supplication infinite that is present in mosques. Classs on Hebrew and basic Hebraism are besides held in temples, and this is similar to the Sessionss held in mosques sing Muslims larning Arabic, recitation of the Koran, etc. Besides, temples serve societal intents. During Judaic Holidays and jubilations, particular services are held for events like Shabbat, Yom Kippur, Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs ( same as Bar Mitzvah, but for female striplings ) , Purim, particular bazars and feasts hosted by the brotherhood and sistership commissions of that temple, and other Judaic vacations and celebrations. Like mosques, events are held at that place, particularly carnivals and parties for jubilations like Purim. To suit for such maps, mosques and temples have characteristic constructions that accommodate their maps. Besides, the architecture of these two edifices contains embedded symbolisms with respect to the orientation of the edifice, design, floor program, etc.

Origins & A ; Purpose

The mosque ‘s chief intent is to function as a topographic point for formal worship in day-to-day and Friday supplications. Both work forces and adult females attend, although adult females are typically segregated in a separate country. Mosques frequently sponsor Quranic recitations and Sufi dhikr ( supplication ) rites. They are the recommended location for retreats and voluntary vigils, particularly during Ramadan. They serve as Centres for the aggregation and distribution of alms and supply shelter and nutriment for the hapless and homeless. Pilgrims frequently visit their local mosques prior to and upon returning from the hadj and lesser pilgrim’s journeies. Marriage and concern understandings are often contracted at that place, and the dead are brought for funerary supplications. Mosques besides serve as educational Centres and cardinal meeting points for authorities resistance in times of crisis. In rule, every knowing Muslim is qualified to preside over ritual supplication and preach, but the leader, or imaum, is supposed to be the most erudite among them or his designated deputy. A adult female may move as the imaum where merely other females are present.

Mosques are typically built wherever Moslems have settled in big adequate Numberss. In some instances they began as supplication infinites in military cantonments and evolved into edifices as metropoliss developed. In other instances they were built over the sites of temples, churches, and castles. There are two types of mosques: big collectivist mosques used for Friday supplication and major communal assemblies, and smaller, private mosques built and operated by civilians. Most were founded and maintained by private charitable contributions and waqf, or spiritual gifts. Shiis and Sufis have been peculiarly active in the building of mosques over the graves of Muhammad, his household, and other holy people. These sites serve as pilgrim’s journey locations and congregational mosques. The mosques of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem hold particular position. The Kaaba in Mecca became the Centre of the hadj, or pilgrim’s journey, rites and the way to be faced during supplication. Muhammad is buried in the mosque in Medina. The al-Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem was identified as the site of Muhammad ‘s marvelous Night Journey and acclivity into Eden.

The edifice in which Jews worship and offer their supplications. The word temple, from the Grecian word significance assembly, corresponds to the Hebrew name bet ha-keneset, ‘house of assembly ‘ , that is, the topographic point in which Jews come together ( Bussagli 2005, p. 48 ) . For all its importance in Judaic life, small is known of the beginnings of the temple. There are no expressed mentions to anything like a temple anyplace in the Bible. Many bookmans have suggested that the temple originated in the period of the Babylonian expatriate, which followed the devastation of the first Temple in 586 BCE. On this theory the earliest temples were little meeting-places in which the expatriates gathered together for supplication. The prophesier Ezekiel, in Babylon, states in one of his references: ‘Thus saith the Lord God. Although I have cast them afar off among the pagan, and although I have scattered them among the states, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in the states where they shall come ‘ ( Ezekiel 11: 16 ) . What the prophesier means by God going for them a little sanctuary is ill-defined, but the Talmud ( Megillah 29a ) identifies the ‘small sanctuary ‘ with the temple. The mention in the book of Psalms to the enemy destructing ‘all the meeting-places of God in the land ‘ ( Psalms 74: 8 ) has besides been understood as using to the temples. However, if temples did be in this early period it is amazing that there is no expressed mention to them. All that can be stated with certainty on the inquiry of beginnings is that by the first century CE the temple had long been an established establishment. The Mishnah ( Tamid 5: 1 ; Yoma 7: 1 ) refers to a temple in the Temple itself. Philo refers to a temple in Rome and, as grounds from the Talmud shows, there were temples in ancient Alexandria. In the New Testament, Jesus is said to hold preached in the temples of Galilee ( Matthew 4: 23 ) and, harmonizing to the Biblical book of Acts, Paul preached in temples in Damascus, Asia Minor, and Cyprus. Archeologists have uncovered the remains of temples in Palestine and elsewhere dating from this early period.

A

There are no regulations in Judaism sing the architectural signifier of the temple edifice. Hebrews have adopted the manners of the states in which they lived ( Krinsky 19996, p. 15 ) . On the other manus, in Western lands during the 19th century, it was far from unusual to construct temples in the oriental manner, in the belief that this best represented the ‘oriental ‘ beginnings of Hebraism: a romantic oversight from the Westernization that was continuing apace. But many temples in the West were besides influenced by church edifices, although, of class, the cruciform manner was ne’er adopted. Orthodox Rabbis were opposed, excessively, to a temple holding a steeple like a church, and their advice was by and large followed by the non-Orthodox as good.

Features

The mosque ‘s cardinal characteristic is the minbar, or stairss from which the Friday discourse ( khutbah ) is delivered. The minbar emulates the rock platform that the Prophet ascended to give his discourses. It stands following to the mihrab, an cosmetic arched niche set into the qiblah, or wall, that indicates the way of Mecca. Mosques besides contain ziyadahs, or walls that hold the ablution installations, and minarets ( towers from which the call to supplication is issued ) .

Mosques provide two types of spiritual instruction: talim, or direction in the Quran, Hadith, and sometimes jurisprudence ; and tarbiyah, or the edifice of a moral personality. Historically, Bible and jurisprudence were taught by single shaykhs, legal experts, or ulema ( spiritual bookmans ) to pupils assembled in circles around them harmonizing to their ain pick. Students frequently traveled great distances to analyze with extremely reputed bookmans. For those coming from the countryside or urban lower categories, mosque instruction cost small and was the lone way to upward mobility. For the urban upper categories and the ulema, mosque instruction provided entree to of import places in the bench, province disposal, and spiritual instruction. Lodging by part of beginning and nutrient for the pupils were provided by grosss from charitable gifts, gifts, contributions, and bequests given by the wealthier categories. Upon completion of survey, the pupil was awarded an ijazah, or written statement attesting that the pupil had successfully studied certain texts with a peculiar instructor and was now allowed to learn these same texts. At the bend of the 19th century the major Sunni mosques supplying instruction were the Great Mosques in Mecca and Medina, Cairo ‘s al-Azhar mosque, Zaytunah in Tunis, and Qarawiyin in Fez. In modern times mosques have continued to function as Centres of spiritual direction, enquiry, treatment, and argument, but spiritual instruction on the higher degrees has been transferred to modern Islamic universities, institutes, and modules of Islamic spiritual surveies and sharia law.

The chief map of the temple is for public worship but there is, of class, no expostulation to a individual come ining the temple for private speculation at other times than those of public worship. The advice is given in the beginnings to continue hastily when traveling to the temple but to go from the temple with unhurried stairss, to bespeak avidity to be at that place and reluctance to go forth. The poetry homiletically interpreted in this connexion is: ‘We shall run to cognize the Lord ‘ ( Hosea 6: 3 ) . The poetry does non, of class, refer to the temple but is made to give the significance that it is right ‘to run ‘ to cognize God and to travel to the temple is to continue to a greater cognition of the Godhead.

A

A synagogue portions many similarities and differences with mosques in respect to map and architectural design. As mentioned before, temples come in many assortments. However, for the interest of treatment, the general design, which is that of the traditional Orthodox religious order of Judaism, will be mentioned here. Normally, temples vary greatly in their external designs, but have a general internal design. Unlike a mosque, a temple does non necessitate of the trusters to take off their places. This is presuming that the temple itself is sanctified. A typical temple ever houses a chief sanctuary, where supplications are held. The chief sanctuary, unlike the musalla of a mosque, contains seats where trusters sit down while the rabbi hosts the initial phases of the supplication service, peculiarly the discourse. At the forepart of the sanctuary is an Ark known as an Aron Ha-kodesh ( Hebrew for “ Holy Ark ” ) , which is where coils from the Torah ( God ‘s disclosure to Moses ) are kept, that is situated atop a platform ; this is kindred to the little bookshelves present in mosques that house transcripts of the Koran, though they are merely scattered around the supplication infinite, and serve no other map. The Ark itself is positioned such that anyone who faces it faces towards Jerusalem, Judaism ‘s holiest metropolis, and is kindred to the Ark of the Covenant built by Moses, which contained the Ten Commandments. Contrary to the map of the Koranic bookshelf in mosques, the Ark is the holiest object found in a temple, and is frequently covered with an embroidered parokhet ( drape ) . In forepart of the platform is another platform that holds a tabular array and the bimah, a base from which the coils are read. The bimah faces the Ark, and the infinite around it can be compared with the mihrab, the imaum ‘s supplication deferral in a mosque. Confronting the fold of believers is a dais from where a rabbi leads the service, and another dais known as an amud ( Hebrew for “ station ” ) confronting the Ark from where a hazzan ( choirmaster ) chants hymns during the supplication service ; the first dais is similar to that used by the imaum in a mosque when presenting his discourse and sermon to the faithful, while the latter is more kindred to a muazzin ‘s station, though the station itself is located inside the temple, non like a minaret that is located at the outside of a mosque. A constantly-lit lantern known as a ner temid is situated in the chief infinite, which is reminiscent of the Temple ‘s Menorah, which remained miraculously ever-luminous. During supplication services, a Menorah ( candelabra ) is illuminated during the supplication services to mark the same Menorah that was lit in the Temple. Sing the sanctuary, there are many similarities and differences between mosques and temples. Both refrain from utilizing imagination and 3-dimensional sculptures, which are kindred to idolatry. However, temples incorporate graphics of natural scenes such as stained glass images of the Sun and Hebrew transitions and supplications from the Torah ; the latter characteristic is similar to the Koranic manuscripts written on the interior walls of a mosque and supplication infinite. Furthermore, the facing of the Ark itself towards Jerusalem is similar to the qibla in mosques, or the edifice ‘s orientation towards the Islamic metropolis of Mecca. However, the symbolic characteristics in a temple every bit good as the floor program itself differ in many ways. For illustration, while a mosque may hold one musalla and a few other suites in big mosques, temples are ever divided into several countries. The beth Midrash ( “ House of Study ” ) is a room where Torah coils are read and studied ; in mosques, the Koran is studied in the musalla as there is no room for this map. Both houses of worship show segregation of work forces and adult females when it comes to prayer services, though work forces may take adult females in Islamic supplication services. While mosques may hold one imaum or more with increasing size of the mosque, temples have a more complex clergy that attends it ; the clergy has a double leading, for case. While imaums may prophesy discourses and lead supplications, the function of rabbis and hazzans in temples is every bit of import when it comes to taking a Judaic supplication fold, or minyan. In add-on to all this, there is this tradition of put ining 12 Windowss across the chief sanctuary hall as a reminder of the Twelve Tribes of Israel mentioned in the Old and New Testament. Synagogues tend to look more like churches than mosques from an exterior point of position, as temples, depending on manner and the religious order that it serves, may hold steeples, minaret-like constructions ( both are non-functional, though ) , domes and emblems like the Star of David, which is said to be the form of King David ‘s shield. On the other manus, some temples, particularly those that Reform Jews adhere to, are based on Moorish ( Andalusian ) architecture, and may hold domes and steeples. Besides, most mosques have one floor, while temples normally have two floors. This is non surprising: the musalla of a mosque is broad unfastened and lacks furniture, while the furniture in temples take up infinite, and therefore it is frequently deemed necessary to construct temples in two floors. Despite all these differences, one could state that mosques and temples are so genuinely brilliant in their ain position, and portion many similarities that make their luster all the more dumbfounding.

Modern Times

In modern times, authoritiess have attempted to command mosque disposal, the assignment of its functionaries, and the content of the khutbah in order to direct and command the nature of Islamic argument in society. Preachers are considered to be authorities employees and are encouraged to discourse spiritual subjects, such as fasting, praying, and regard and obeisance to those in authorization, instead than current political issues. In contrast, the popular khutbah, which is uncontrolled by the authorities, is frequently a extremely emotional and topical address that combines treatments of mainstream Islamic idea and history with national jobs and crises interpreted in the context of local political relations and international crises related to Muslims. Common subjects include the ageless, cosmopolitan battle between good and evil, where the West, particularly the United States, symbolizes moral and religious degeneracy, and the necessity of jehad, or holy battle, in the face of unfairness. The analysis is normally presented in black and white footings and marks corrupt swayers, inequalities between rich and hapless, and the inefficiency of authorities. Many of these popular sermonizers oversee big folds and go outstanding societal and political voices.

While all Hebrews have a respectful attitude towards the temple, some no uncertainty happening much significance even in the mystical apprehension of the temple as the residence of the Shekhinah, a grade of opposition has come about in modern times, as it did in former times, to the thought that Judaism is synagogue-oriented. Rabbis are fond of prophesying that Judaism demands far more than regular worship in the temple and that, for illustration, many of the highest ideals of the Judaic faith are realized in the Judaic place instead than in the temple. Worship in the temple is a empyreal terminal in itself but it is besides a agency of animating Jews to take a full Judaic life and much of life has its topographic point outside the temple. For all that, the bulk of Jews, today, still view the temple as the best agencies of retaining trueness to Judaism and continuing Judaic individuality. As with respect to other peculiar facets of Judaism, synagogal life is both an terminal in itself and a agency to the ultimate terminal of Judaic life, the worship of God in every one of life ‘s state of affairss: ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy waies ‘ ( Proverbs 3: 6 ) . Contemporary Rabbis therefore find themselves in a quandary. On the one manus they feel obliged to press Jews to go to temple services on a regular basis but, on the other manus, they can non permit the position that temple attending is the be-all and end-all of Judaism.

Decision

A

Peoples all over the universe profess a assortment of religions, and it is non difficult to descry religions that are non merely similar to each other in beliefs, but incorporate similar societal constructions, as we have seen in Islam and Judaism with respects to temples and mosques. Despite the differences in rites and topographic points of worship, Islam and Judaism do keep a important sum of similarities in footings of religious ends and ideals.