Islam: An Oral Religion Part 2

First off, I’d like to comment on the difference between basing my blog post off an oral interview rather than a text. I interviewed Dr. Kent Jackson from the Religion Department who teaches my Islam and the Gospel class that I related to on my previous post. What an experience! Professors are honestly holding these enormous vats of knowledge in their brains that students have access to if they take the initiative. For example, I was able to find the answers to nearly all my questions regarding education in the Islamic culture in the space of 20 minutes—I doubt you could be even remotely productive using the internet.

Also, there is sense of academic pride that comes along with having an intellectual conversation orally. You are able to learn more when you are actively engaged in conversation rather than staring longingly at Google Search screen.

Anyways here are a few of the interesting facts I discovered about the Ottoman Empire:

· Educational institutions were modeled after Europe

· 95% of the citizens were illiterate

· No central language as the Empire was vastly diverse

· No Printing Press system as compared to the large expansion in Europe

These historical facts determine that the essence of the Islamic culture had to be preserved by oral means. Muslims were able to preserve their religious culture through regularly attending the mosque and listening to the sermons provided the imams (educated Islamic teachers).Muslims could then learn the doctrine and further transmit religious knowledge to their families.

One of the most highly valued forms of oral knowledge in Islamic culture is the act of memorizing Qur'an. Even today, Muslims find it an effective source of spirituality and showcase of their dedication to Allah (not too different from memorizing Scripture Mastery). Here is a picture of Muslims attending an annual Memorization conference. Unfortunately, my teacher couldn’t provide me with any mnemonic techniques that Muslims incorporate with memorizing the Qur'an. However, he did provide me with an additional person with whom I can consult. That’s the thing about oral knowledge, you have to interact with more than one person to understand the whole picture. Hopefully, I can gain some more information and do a follow up post later.

During my interview, the weaknesses of oral communication in Islamic culture were brought to my attention. Mainly, these weaknesses center around the fact that Islam does not have a central religious figure today. They believe all prophet-like revelation ended with Muhammad, and the only true authority lies with the Qur’an itself. The lack of central authority allows for multiple oral interpretations of Islam to roam free without check. Usually, central authorities (such as within the LDS church) are responsible for weeding out discrepancies being orally transmitted by wrongly-guided members. In result, the Islamic culture is full of unofficial traditions.

For example, the head cover that women wear in Islamic culture is not actually an official statement within the Islamic religion. The Qur'an never mentions it. Most likely, this tradition was started orally by some historic event and has become assimilated into Islamic culture ever since.

The fact that Islam has prospered for hundreds of years is living proof of the effectiveness of oral-knowledge. It may seem ridiculous to hear of people memorizing religious texts simply because we cannot see the practical application to the material world. However, preserving culture is not necessarily of the world…it lies deep within the human subconscious (as Summer pointed out in her comment on the previous post). That’s why we memorize, not to be practical, but to gain the X-factor that enables us to connect to something deeper than our physical existence.