HIS 101 and 111
Hadith Paragraph Assignment
The Kaaba is
located in the al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca--the mosque
was built much later. There is much uncertainty surrounding the
actual age and original construction of the structure, but it clearly is a
pre-Islamic building in the form of a cube and made out of granite from
the surrounding area. According to Islamic tradition, the
Kaaba was built by Abraham (Ibrahim) and his son Ishmael. Also
according to tradition the Black Stone housed in the Kaaba dates
to the time of Adam and Eve when it fell to the earth (dazzling white
in color, later turned black from the sins of the world), but the
stone/meteorite also predates the establishment of Islam in Mecca. When
Muhammad conquered the city in 630, he destroyed the idols around
and the pictures within the Kaaba and remade it as an Islamic house of worship--the
object of the pilgrimage, the Hajj.
The Kaaba is almost always pictured draped by the Kiswah (black cover),
which, since the thirteen century, has been made in Egypt every year and
then carried to Mecca by pilgrims on the Hajj. The cloth is
embroidered in gold with the profession of faith (the Shahadah). The previous year's cloth is
then cut up and distributed. Photo credit ZAK!
Citing specific evidence from the Hadith (not from the textbook), did this excerpt from the Hadith describe an ethical religion, i.e. a religion that required an individual to follow a code of moral behavior?
Your paragraph should be about one-half page in length, double-spaced with one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12; it should contain a concise topic sentence that directly responds to the assigned question (no need to define terms or cite a dictionary) and use direct, quoted material to support your points. You may consider submitting a draft of your assignment to your instructor for feedback before submitting the assignment for a grade. Please send some specific questions that you would like answered about your draft. The questions can be general (Is my thesis/first sentence clear?) or specific (Is the phrase, "Chardin was jeweller," written correctly?).