Sublime

What seems certain, however, is that Muhammad, like all the prophets before him, wanted nothing to do with God’s calling. So despondent was he about the experience that his first thought was to kill himself.

AS AN ORPHAN, Muhammad must have understood all too well the difficulty of falling outside Mecca’s religio-economic system. Fortunately for him, his uncle and new guardian, Abu Talib, was also the Shaykh of the Banu Hashim—a small, not very wealthy, yet prestigious clan within the mighty tribe of Quraysh. It was Abu Talib who kept Muhammad from fal

Therein lies the principal difference between the Shi‘ah and the Sunni. The Shi‘ah believe that salvation requires the intercession of Muhammad, his son-in-law Ali, his grandsons Hasan and Husayn, and the rest of the Prophet’s legitimate successors, the Imams, who not only serve as humanity’s intercessors on the Last Days, but who further function

they were steeped in arrogance,—a people given to sin.

Nor did We send before you (as messengers) any but men, whom We did inspire,—(men) living in human habitations.

The majority of the Shi‘ah accepted the succession of al-Baqir, who then passed the Imamate to his son Ja‘far as-Sadiq. As the sixth and most influential Imam, Ja‘far formalized the Karbala rituals and established the principles of Shi‘ism’s main school of law. The Jafari school, as it is known, differentiates itself from Sunni schools of law, firs

He has forbidden you only carrion, blood, and the flesh of swine; also any flesh that is consecrated other than in the name of God. But for one who is driven by necessity, neither craving nor transgressing, it is no sin. For God is forgiving and merciful.

As far as Muhammad was concerned, the Jews and the Christians were “People of the Book” (ahl al-Kitab), spiritual cousins who, as opposed to the pagans and polytheists of Arabia, worshipped the same God, read the same scriptures, and shared the same moral values as his Muslim community. Although each faith comprised its own distinct religious commu