For this discussion, I chose to respond to Al-Fatihah. This is largely due to the fact that though brief, it perfectly encapsulates several of the core tenants of Islam thusly allowing one to come to the understanding of that central point without florid language or needlessly complex diatribes muddying the waters. This point can be gleaned from the line, “It is You we worship, and upon You we call for help.” which indicates that within the faith there is but one god who draws praise from its followers thus revealing the centrality of monotheism in the Islamic tradition. I found this text to be quite pleasant though I might refrain from calling it beautiful, this is because while I find its brevity and comprehensibility enjoyable, it lacks the depth of emotionality that comes from greater enumeration of thought that would allow for it to be granted that greater level of appreciation.

I was intrigued by the passage delineating god as “The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment.” both because one typically doesn’t correlate graciousness and mercy with the concept of judgment on a godly scale which tends to be understood as fairly brutal and unforgiving as well as because it hints at the fact that there will come a time of judgment. This concept of an end time which will be followed by holy judgement brings to mind the Christian Revelation which portends much the same thing though it seems that the terms of the judgement might vary a bit. In Christianity it is given that God is a bit more concerned with the rigor with which you followed the precepts of the faith and less so with your intentions or internal belief though these still factor in to an extent while in Islam greater emphasis is put on this “straight path” which centers more so on submission to the will of God than anything else.