Class session: Tuesday, October 6
Guest summarizer: Alaa Jaber
For the duration of class today we had a discussion based on the five pillars of Islam with a heightened focus on Hajj. We began by reviewing the five pillars, shahadah, salat, sawm, Hajj, zakat and briefly touched on the way in which Ernst chooses not to include the Shahadah in his text but rather includes Jihad. An interesting point was brought up regarding obligation in Islam and how oftentimes in Islam when people are exused from performing their duties as Muslims due to any constraints, this does not bring the believer a feeling of relief, rather they wish to be able to complete the ritual. The discussion was concluded with the question of whether it is more advantageous or disadvantageous to include a context of the rituals and practices in Islam when writing an academic text.