Though I would certainly never claim to know a lot about any given religion, going into this course, one religion that I already had some background knowledge about was Islam. This was due to having many Muslim students and several Muslim friends & colleagues, reading books that have Muslim characters or that were written by Muslim authors, taking a previous course about Islam, and spending time abroad last summer studying in Java, a Muslim-dominant island in Indonesia. Given the current political climate of Islamophobia, I have also found myself frequently trying to spread truths to share all that I know about Islam and presenting it as the religion of peace that I know it to be. I hope to use this post to do more of the same. The 5 Pillars of Islam & A Personal StoryOur day began with a former Naperville District 203 student named Wali Khan. Wali is currently a trauma nurse at Cook County Hospital, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is someone that you want to have by your side when you are experiencing a medical emergency. Within minutes, it became glaringly apparent that Wali is an incredibly brilliant, insightful individual and a talented speaker. He spoke with us about how Islam was a dormant religion for him until college, which is when he began to finally explore his faith. He now considers Islam the moral compass by which he lives his life. He feels that being strong in his faith is what makes him effective at his rewarding but emotionally, physically, and mentally draining job as a trauma nurse. Wali continued by telling us about the 5 Pillars of Islam. The foundation of Islam is built upon these 5 pillars: shahada (conviction), salah (prayer), sawm (fasting), zakah (charity), and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca if you can). He reiterated the fact that there is no compulsion in religion, and the 1st pillar of conviction is between you and God ONLY. That means that the Islamic faith is completely misrepresented when radical Muslims try to force someone to accept Islam. Making someone else follow Islam against their will directly conflicts with the pillars, the foundation of Islam. Wali also discussed how he views prayer as a conversation with God, and he likes how his 5 prayers/day force him to stop, focus on being a good moral person, and break up the monotony of the day. It was evident how much his Islamic beliefs and religious practices are embedded into his daily life and the way that he approaches his important life's work. Read more about his work as a Muslim trauma nurse in Chicago by clicking here. Wali, thank you for donating your time and sharing your personal story with us this week. Student PanelMy favorite part of this course was the various student panels because all of the educators taking this course signed up to learn more about how religion influences our students' lives and what considerations we should make when we have students of different religious and cultural backgrounds in our classrooms. These D203 students wanted us to know the following things:
As a final note, the students shared that, culturally, there is not gender equality in Islam, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia. However, religiously and fundamentally, there is gender equality and female empowerment. In our course, we analyzed how "religions are embedded in cultures, not isolated from them." This is especially true in Islam. Culture and religion are so intertwined that it's hard to separate the two, but if we want to make any progress, culture and religion need to begin to be separated.
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