After taking this course, I have learned, and I hope others learn, that there is much more to Islam than what is explicitly stated in the Qur’an. As a Religion Concentrator, I have studied various religious theory stating that religion is created by the practitioners. Practitioners define the religion more than any religious text could. Though this opinion could be heavily contested, I believe it is applicable to Islam in the modern world.
In the beginning, Islam formed around the memorization of the Qur’an for teaching purposes; however, as time has passed, modes of worship of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad have become much more diverse. The cultural studies approach helped me look at the more expansive picture of Islam as we dived into the interpretation of rituals, Qur’an recitations and various forms of calligraphic work among many other forms of artwork.
I created the following two posters as source of media for encouraging others to further their study of Islam. In the first poster titled “Beyond the Quran!”, I note that the cultural studies approach shows us that we all worship differently, we all practice differently and that we are all inherently different human beings. Keeping this in mind, we should love, respect and support one another because of our differences rather than creating barriers between individuals based on their religious affiliations or practices.
This second poster shows more explicitly the diversity of Islam. On the poster, I have two quotes from Rumi about the sea. In various works of mystic poetry, God is viewed as the limitless “sea” of love and power. In this poster, I show mosques from three different locations around the world. Though their physical appearance may be different, they are all united under the religious tradition of Islam and adoration of the Prophet Muhammad. Keeping with the nautical theme, the three locations, though they are all separated by various different oceans, are still swaddled in the sea of God’s love.
**all images are taken from google; posters made on Canva