Faith And Power Religion and Power by Bernard Lewis pdf

Faith And Power Religion and Power by Bernard Lewis

FAITH AND POWER

The political differences between the three interrelated Middle Eastern religions, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, are clearly expressed in the narratives that constitute the sacred foundation history of the three.

Moses led his people out of bondage and through the wilderness but was not permitted to enter the Promised Land.

 Christ died on the cross, and his followers were a persecuted minority until centuries later they converted a Roman emperor and entered into a long and problematic relationship with the Roman and then other states.

Muhammad, the Prophet and founder of Islam, achieved worldly success during his lifetime, becoming the head of a state that was soon to grow into an empire.

As the Ayatollah Khomeini reminded us, the Prophet Muhammad founded not only a community but also a polity, a society, and a state of which he was the sovereign ruler.

As such, he commanded armies, made war and peace, collected taxes, proclaimed and enforced the law, and did all those things a ruler normally does.

 All this meant that from the very beginning of Islam, from the lifetime of its founder, in the formative memories that are the sacred, classical, and scriptural history of all Muslims, religion and the state are one and the same

 This intimate connection between faith and power remained characteristic of Islam in contrast to the other two religions.