Chapter 1: Introduction, First Part

"The world´s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, according to new population projections by the Pew Research Center´s Forum on Religion & Public Life." (ANALYSIS, 27 January 2011)

http://www.pewforum.org/The-Future-of-the-Global-Muslim-Population.aspx

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I have found the following by Marshal Hodgson on the "Science of Compassion" very helpful for my own thinking about empathy (pp. 3–5 of Introducing Islam). (The "Batinis" are also known as the Isma´ilis and include the "Assassins", probably the closest pre–modern parallels to today´s "suicide bombers".) (Hodgson, Marshall (1974) The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, 3 vols, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, Vol. I, p. 379 fn.)

"In studying the Batini movement, more even than in most other religious studies, we need to make use of what Massignon calls the psychosociological ´science of compassion´. The scholarly observer must render the mental and practical behavior of a group into terms available in his own mental resources, which should remain personally felt even while informed with a breadth of reference which will allow other educated persons to make sense of them. But this must not be to substitute his own and his readers´ conventions for the original, but to broaden his own perspective so that it can make a place for the other. Concretely, he must never be satisfied to cease asking ´but why?´ until he has driven the understanding to the point where he has an immediate human grasp of what a given position meant, such that every nuance in the data is accounted for and withal, given the total of presuppositions and circumstances, he could feel himself doing the same. Such a grasp is to be checked, of course; for instance, by testing whether circumstances which must be presumed, so as to account for an attitude, can then be attested independently. Yet however risky the method is, it is less risky than any more external method."

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins. (Native American proverb).

Chapter 2: On the Eve of Islam

Khvarr

Khwarneh (oldest form), khvarr or khwarr (or xwarr, later pre–Islamic form), farr (Persian of the Islamic period) is variously translated as “welfare”, “fortune”, “kingly glory”, “nimbus”, “effulgence”, “destiny”; it is described as a “blazing fire, coming from Endless light” (Zaehner, R. C. (1961) The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, pp. 150—53) and as “the heavenly blessing, which legitimizes every king” (Yarshater, Ehsan [ed.] (1983) Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3/2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 935). Other figures can also have the khwarr and it can apparently be lost if the holder acts unjustly.

For the myth of the khwarrat the beginning of time see Boyce, Mary (1984) Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 29—30.

For the farr as it appears in the writings of the great Islamic Persian writer, Firdowsi (see ch. 4, p. 52. and ch. 14, p. 219 in Introducing Islam): http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Farr/farr.html.

Religion and government are twins:

Ardashir, the first Sasanian shah, is reported as saying: “Know that religion and kingship are two brothers, and neither can dispense with the other. Religion is the foundation of kingship and kingship protects religion. For whatever lacks a foundation must perish, and whatever lacks a protector disappears.” This quote is found in a book by al–Mas‘udi, an Islamic writer  (Zaehner, R, C. [1956] The Teachings of the Magi, London: Allen & Unwin, p. 85) but is already found in a late Sasanian source  (Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3/2, p. 933).

Yazata (or yazad)

The word means “being worthy of worship” and is usually translated “god” but in Muslim times came to be understood as “angels” (Boyce, Mary [1979] Zoroastrians, London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, p. 179; Boyce, Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, pp. 15, 47, 120).

Nestorians

The most prominent issue raised by the Nestorians is that they refused to call Mary “the Mother of God” (theotokos, literally “God bearer”) on the grounds that she was the mother of the human nature of Christ but not of the divine nature.

A survey of Nestorian history by Nestorians will be found at: http://www.nestorian.org/history_of_the_nestorian_churc.html.

Three significant religious movements not discussed in the text.

Zurvanism

A variant of Zoroastrianism is known as Zurvanism. It postulated the existence of a figure, Zurvan (“Time”), who had engendered Ormazd and Ahriman but does not intervene in the struggle between them. It involved speculations about fate. This view was rejected by the priests but was evidently held by the Sasanian royal family and persisted into the Muslim period.

Samaritans

The Samaritans were descendants of Northern tribes of Israel who separated from the other Jews at the time of their return from exile in Babylon. They had a separate sanctuary and rec­ognized only the first five books of the Bible, in a slightly different version from the Jews. They appear to have prospered until they rebelled against the Byzantine Empire in 529, but they have survived in small numbers to the present day. Some scholars find aspects of Samaritan thinking in Islam; they have a creedal formula that goes, “There is no god but the One”. Others, however, think they are influenced by Islam. On the Samaritans, see: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/samaritan/id/1896937.

Jewish Christians

Most Christians after the earliest generations were gentiles and rejected most dis­tinctive Jewish laws and practices. Some Christians, however, retained their Jewish identity and a modified version of Jewish law and developed into a separate movement, sometimes called Ebionite, that continued in Syria until the fifth century, but there is also an account of a community of them in Jerusalem in the seventh century. They accepted Jesus as a prophet and as messiah but not as the divine Son of God. Their ideas about the unity of God, the historical series of prophets, the relationship between the teachings of Jesus and Moses and falsifications in the latter’s law, as well as some of their specific practices, seem to anticipate aspects of Islam. Some of their ideas may have endured to Muslim times.  (See Further Reading)

Axial Age

The concept of the “axial age” was introduced by Karl Jaspers in his book (1953) The Origin and Goal of History. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975 (German original 1949) and has had considerable but not universal acceptance among scholars. I find it useful for understanding the period involved. (See Further Reading.)

Chapter 3: The Beginnings of Islam

For more detail on Hatim and Imru’ al-Qays see Nicholson, R.A. (1907, reprint 1969) A Literary History of the Arabs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 85–87, 103–7.

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‘Amr ibn Kulthum was the author of one of the famous seven odes said to have been hung in the Ka‘ba (Mu‘allaqāt) in the pre-Islamic period. He is said to have killed the king of Hira because of an insult to his mother and to have drunk himself to death with wine, accounts which, whether true or not, illustrate the idea of jahiliyya.  He has left us one of the most striking examples of the pre-Islamic use of the root, j-h-l,

"Let no one act fiercely (yajhalanna) against us,

for we shall be fiercer than the fierce (fa-najhalu fawqa jahli al-jāhilīna )."

or we may render it:

"Let no one act in a jahili way against us,

for we shall out-jahl the jahilis"

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The First Revelation to Muhammad

The following is drawn mainly from the biography (sīra) of Muhammad, written by Ibn Ishaq (d. c. 767) and revised by Ibn Hisham (d. 834). The two inset paragraphs come from the parallel section of the History of Prophets and Kings by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923). They were very likely in Ibn Ishaq’s work but omitted by Ibn Hisham. Guillaume includes them in his translation. (For other translations of these passages see Guillaume, A. (1955) The Life of Muhammad, a translation of Ibn Ishaq.  Sirat Rasul Allah. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 105–7; Williams, J. A. (ed.) (1972) Islam, New York: Washington Square Press, pp. 47–49; Watt, Montgomery and McDonald, M. V., trans. (1988) The History of al-Tabari, Vol. 6. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 70–73. I have translated the sections from Ibn Hisham from the Arabic, consulting these translations, and have used Guillaume and Watt and McDonald for the sections from al-Tabari.) The abbreviation (SAAS) represents the phrase “May God bless him and grant him peace”, used conventionally after references to Muhammad.

Ibn Ishaq said: Wahb ibn Kaysan told me that . . . 'Ubayd related:  The Messenger of God would pray in seclusion on Mount Hira' for a month out of each year, practising taḥannuth as was the custom of the Quraysh in the jāhiliyya. Taḥannuth means pious devotions . . .   . The Messenger of God  (SAAS) would pray in retreat the same month each year and feed the poor who came to him. When he finished his retreat at the end of the month and left the place, the first thing he would do, even before going home, was to go to the Ka‘ba and circumambulate it seven times, or as many times as God willed. Then he would return to his house.

Then in the month of Ramadan, the month in which God Almighty had willed to honor him, in the year when He gave him his mission, the Messenger of God  (SAAS) set out for his retreat at Mount Hira as he always had and his family went with him. When the night came on which God honored him with his mission, and thus showed mercy to all of His servants, Gabriel (upon him be peace) came to him with the command [affair] of Almighty God.

"He came to me," said the Apostle of God  (SAAS), "while I was asleep, with a brocade coverlet that had writing on it, and said ‘Recite!’, and I said ‘What shall I recite?’ [or I cannot read] He pressed it against me so hard that I thought I would die; then he let me go and said ‘Recite!’ I said, ‘What shall I recite?’ [or I cannot read]  Then he pressed it against me again so that I thought I would die, then he let me go and said ‘Recite!’ I said 'But what shall I recite?’ Then he pressed it against me again so that I thought I would die, then he let me go and said ‘Recite!’ I said 'But what shall I recite?' - And this I said only to keep him from doing the same thing again, but he said:

‘Recite:  In the Name of your Lord who created,

Created man from a blood clot,

Recite!  Thy Lord is the most generous,

Who taught by the Pen,

Taught people what they did not know.’

So I recited it, and he departed from me.  And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were engraved on my heart.

"Now none of God's creatures was more hateful to me than an (ecstatic) poet or a man possessed (majnūn); I could not even bear to look at them, I said to myself, 'Woe is me – poet or possessed.  Never shall Quraysh say that of me!  I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down and kill myself and thus gain rest.'

I left and when I had traversed half the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘O Muhammad!  You are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' I raised my head towards heaven to see, and there was Gabriel in the form of a man, with his feet on the horizon, saying, 'O Muhammad!  You are the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.’ I stood gazing at him, moving neither forward nor backward; then I began to turn my face away from him toward other parts of the sky, but wherever I looked I saw him as before, so I kept standing there without moving forward or back. At this point, Khadija sent her messengers in search of me, and they went as far as the high ground above Mecca and then returned to her, while I was standing in that same place. Then Gabriel left me.

Then I left and returned to my family.  I went to Khadija and sat close to her with my thigh next to hers.  She asked, "Abu al-Qasim (Father of al-Qasim, i.e., Muhammad), where have you been?  By Allah, I have sent my messengers in search of you, all the way to the high ground above Mecca and back.'

[I said to her,] 'Woe is me – a poet, or a man possessed!'  She said 'I take refuge in Allah from that, O Abu al-Qasim! God would not treat you thus; He knows your truthfulness, your great trustworthiness, your fine character, and your kindness to your family. This cannot be, my dear.  Perhaps you have seen something.'  'Yes, I have,' I told her.

Then I told her what I had seen, and she said, ‘Rejoice, O son of my uncle, and rest assured!  By Him in whose hand is Khadija's soul, I do hope that you will be the prophet of this people.’”  Then she rose and gathered her garments around her and set off to see her cousin Waraqa ibn Naufal ibn Asad ibn 'Abd-al-'Uzza ibn Qusayy, who had become a Christian and read the scriptures and learned from those who follow the Torah and the Gospel.  And when she related to him what the Messenger of God  (SAAS) told her he had seen and heard, Waraqa said: "Holy! Holy! By Him in whose hand is Waraqa's soul, if you have told me the truth, Khadija, what has come to him is the greatest Namus  (generally understood to refer to Gabriel), who came to Moses, and he is indeed the prophet of this people.  Tell him to rest assured."  So Khadija returned to the Messenger of God  (SAAS) and told him what Waraqa had said.

Ibn Ishaq said: Isma‘il ibn Abi Hakam informed me on Khadija’s authority that she (may God be pleased with her) said to the Messenger of  God  (SAAS), “Cousin, this companion of  yours, can you tell me when he comes to you? He said, “Yes.” She said, “Then do so.” Then Gabriel came to him as he had before, and the Messenger of God  (SAAS) said to Khadija, “O Khadija, this Gabriel has come to me.” She said, “Get up, cousin, and sit by my left thigh,” and the Messenger of God (SAAS) did so. She said, “Do you see him?” He said, “Yes.”  Then she said, “Move over and sit by my right thigh.” And the Messenger of God  (SAAS) did so.  Again she said, “Do you see him?”, and he said, “Yes.” “Then move over and sit in my lap.” And he did so.  And she said, “Do you see him?,” and he said, “Yes.”  Then she began to disrobe and threw her veil (khimār) aside while the Messenger of God  (SAAS) was still sitting on her lap, and said, “Do you see him?” He said, “No.” Then she said, “O cousin, be assured and rejoice, for by Allah, this is an angel and not a shayṭān.”

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Critical and Revisionist Views

In assessing the critical and revisionist views it must be borne in mind that critical scholars have widely accepted the arguments of Ignaz Goldziher and Joseph Schacht that most of the hadith in the standard collections are forged and represent the views of Muslims in the ninth/third century, when they were collected. Some may go back to Muhammad but it is impossible to tell which ones.

The more or less standard critical position on the reconstruction of early Islamic history, held by writers such as W. Montgomery Watt and F. E. Peters is presented in the following statement by Peters (1994):

 “And in dealing with Muhammad, where the Quran is the historian’s chief ‘document,’ it seems most useful and productive simply to apply a combination of common sense and some modern heuristic devices to the traditional accounts. We must begin with the traditional material and attempt to make some sense out of it.” (Muhammad and the Origins of Islam, p. 266)

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A recent revisionist view

According to Fred M. Donner ([2010] Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, see below) evidence (e.g. tombstone and papyri) from the first century of Islam record only the title amīr al-mu’minīn.  The title khalīfa appears only in accounts that were written more than a century later. In these the Rightly Guided Caliphs were said to have used khalīfat rasūl Allāh (successor of the Messenger of God) while Mu‘awiya and other Umayyads used khalīfat Allah (Deputy of God), which is a “higher” title and makes a claim of a direct divine sanction reminiscent of his Byzantine and Sassanian precessors. (See also Donner in Further Reading)

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For revisionists and others, see Chapter 3 Further Reading

 

Chapter 4: Expansion and Flowering

Sharing of Muslim and Christian feasts:

We read a lot about violence between Muslims and Christians in places such as Indonesia and various parts of Africa, as well as between Muslim and Hindus in South Asia. In fact, Muslims and others have often lived quite peacefully together and even shared each others’ feasts and shrines.

For an example of a modern version of this in Senegal, see “A joyeux Noël in Muslim Senegal” by Claire Soares, in The Christian Science Monitor, 20 December 2006:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1220/p07s02-woaf.html.

Chapter 5 The Qur’an

A fuller quotation from Thomas Carlyle on the Qur’an:

"I must say, it is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook . . . a wearisome confused jumble, crude, . . . endless iterations, long-windedness, entanglement . . . . Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Koran . . . . with every allowance, one feels it difficult to see how any mortal ever could consider this Koran as a well-written book, or indeed as a book at all . . .

  (but when the reading is behind you a ways. . .) ". . . in this there is a merit quite other than the literary one.  If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that."  ([1910] On Heroes and Hero Worship. London: Ward, Lock & Co, pp. 86–87)

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The following two passages by contemporary scholars, one a Muslim and one a Westerner, present an interesting and attractive approach to the fragmented style of the Qur’an.

“The text of the Qur’an reveals human language crushed by the power of the Divine Word. It is as if human language were shattered into a thousand fragments like a wave scattered into drops against the rocks at sea. One feels the shattering effects left upon the language of the Quran, the power of the Divine whence it originated. The Quran displays human language with all the weakness inherent in it becoming suddenly the recipient of the Divine Word and displaying its frailty before a power which is infinitely greater than man can imagine.”    (Sayyed Hossein Nasr [1972] in his book Ideals and Realities of Islam, Boston: Beacon Press,pp. 47–48) 

“Norman O. Brown recently suggested that it is this very scattered or fragmented mode of composition that allows the Qur’an to achieve its most profound effects, as if the intensity of the prophetic message were shattering the vehicle of human language in which it was being communicated.” (Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations (1999), trans. Michael Sells. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, pp. 16–17)

While such an approach may be appealing to many Westerners (including me) it seems hard to square it with the idea of the Qur’an as a literary miracle, whose literary form is unmatchable by human beings. As with Carlyle, these writers appreciate the Qur’an in spite of its literary characteristic rather than because of them.

By contrast, a modern Pakistani scholar, Amin Ahsan Islahi, argues that the Qur’an does have a coherent organization and particularly that the suras are coherent units. His ideas are available in English in Mustansir Mir’s book, Coherence in the Qur’an (Indianapolis, IN: American Trust Publications, 1986). For a briefer account, see his chapter 8 in Abdul-Kader, (1993) Approaches to the Qur’ān, ed. Hawting and Shareef (London; New York: Routledge). For a summary and critique see Robinson (2003) Discovering the Qurʾān(London: SCM Press; can be downloaded in PDF form at http://www.youquran.com/DISCOVERING-QURAN-Robinson.PDF (accessed 28 October 2013).

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The Fatiha or Opening Sura of the Qur’an.

This sura is recited on a wide number of occasions. Below is the text in Arabic transliterated to reflect as closely as possible the pronunciation (Introducing Islam, pp. xxi–xxiv will help). Note the rhyme scheme in –īn and –īm. Beside it are two well-known translations, those of A. J. Arberry in The Koran Interpreted (1980) (reprint, London: Allen and Unwin) and A. Yusuf Ali (1975) The Holy Qur’an (reprint, Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf). A slightly different version (by the author) appears in Introducing Islam, p. 70. Following this is the text in Arabic calligraphy. This is from a small inexpensive cardboard poster that might have been put on a wall at home or in a workplace, the elegance of the calligraphy and the significance of the text being no less for that.

Arabic	Arberry	A. Yusuf Ali
(1) Bi-smi-llāhi-r-raḥmāni-r-raḥīm	In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,	In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
(2) Al-ḥamdu li-llāhi rabbi-l-‘ālamīn	Praise belongs to God, the Lord of all Being,	Praise be to God, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds
(3) Ar-raḥmāni-r-raḥīm	The All-merciful, the All-compassionate	Most Gracious, Most Merciful
(4) Māliki-yawmi-ddīn	The Master of the Day of Doom.	Master of the Day of Judgment
(5) Iyyāka na‘budu Wa-iyyāka nasta‘in	Thee only we serve; to Thee alone we pray for succour	Thee do we worship And Thine aid we seek
(6) Ihdinā-ṣ-ṣirāṭi-l-mustaqīm	Guide us in the straight path	Show us the straight way
(7) Ṣirāṭi-lladhīna an‘amta ‘alayhim, ghayri-l-maghḍūbi ‘alayhim, Wa-la ḍāllīn	The path of those whom Thou hast blest, not of those against whom thou art wrathful nor of those who are astray	The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose portion is not wrath, And who go not astray

 

Notes on the translation of verse 2:

• Al-ḥamdu li-llāhi translated very literally is “The praise to (or belonging to) God”
• Thus both translations above are acceptable, as is “All praise belongs to God”
• rabb is usually translated “Lord” and would appear to be derived from the root r-b-b but Muslim commentators usually derive it here from r-b-y, which yields the ideas of educating, fostering and nurturing.
• ‘ālamīn literally means “worlds” and has been interpreted variously.

 

 

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The conceptual difference between nabī and rasūl is subject to debate. In general in the Qur’an nabi refers to the prophets of Israel (including Jesus) and Muhammad, while rasul refers to the non-Israelite prophets, some Israelite prophets (including Jesus), Muhammad and some angels.

In English translation one can easily keep the distinction by using “prophet” for nabi and “messenger” or “Apostle” for rasul, though this is not done consistently. 

According to some a rasul is a prophet who brings a new Shari‘a while a nabi follows the Shari‘a of a previous rasul but this cannot be verified from the Qur’an.

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Messengers and Prophets of God

God has sent many messengers and prophets before Muhammad.

Partial list:

• Adam
• Nūḥ (Noah)
• Hūd (Arabian prophet)
• Ṣāliḥ (Arabian prophet)
• Ibrāhīm (Abraham)
• Lūṭ (Lot)
• Isḥaq (Isaac)
• Ismā‘īl (Ishmael)
• Yūsuf (Joseph)
• Mūsā (Moses)  Scripture: Tawrā
• Hārūn (Aaron)
• Dāūd (David) Scripture: Zubūr (Psalms)
• Ilyās (Elias, Elijah)
• Sulaymān (Solomon)
• Yūnus (Jonah)
• Yahyā (John the Baptist)
• ‘Īsā (Jesus).  Scripture: Injīl (Gospel)

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Founding of the Ka‘ba by Ibrahim.

This is a very firm part of the tradition, however, and probably was a tradition among the Arabs before Muhammad’s time.

As to the intended sacrifice, there was for many centuries (at least until the time of Ibn Khaldun) a tradition of Muslim Qur’an interpretation that made it Ishaq.

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Qur’an 82:1–5  The Arabic below shows the rhyme scheme

 

When the heaven is split open,

When the stars are scattered,

When the seas are poured forth,

When the tombs are overturned,

Then a soul shall know what it has done,

And what it has left undone.

 

Idhā -s-shamsu -nfaṭarat

Idhā -l-kawākibu -ntatharat

Idhā -l-bihāru fujjirat

Idhā -l-qubūru bu‘thirat

‘Alimat nafsun mā qaddamat wa-ma akhkharat

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Page 75: “Muslim men and women, believing men and women, obe­dient men and women … for them God has prepared forgiveness and a mighty wage”.  The whole passage is as follows:

 

Men and women who have surrendered

(muslimūn wa-muslimāt ),

Believing men and believing women,

obedient men and obedient women,

truthful men and truthful women,

persevering men and persevering women,

humble men and humble women,

men and women who give in charity,

men who fast and women who fast,

men and women who guard their private parts,

men and women who remember God often –

for them God has prepared forgiveness and a mighty wage.

[33:35]

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Chronology of the Qur’an: a new approach.

Benham Sadeghi has refined an approach first developed by Mehdi Bazargan, who distinguished 21 groups of Qur’anic passages. Sadeghi decreases this to seven groups, of which each is as a whole earlier or later than the one after or before it (though this is not necessarily the case with each member of the group). He also claims that his analysis is consistent with the traditional outline of Muhammad’s career and shows that the Qur’an had one author. Sadeghi, Behnam (2011) “The Chronology of the Qurʾān: A Stylometric Research Program”, Arabica 58: 210–99.

Chapter 6: The Prophet Muhammad

 

More hadiths about the Prophet

(cf. pp. 86–88, Introducing Islam):

The Apostle of God used to patch his own sandals, stitch his own garments, and work around the house just as any one of you works around his house. (Jeffery, Arthur [ed.] [1958] Islam: Muhammad and his Religion, Indianapolis, IN and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, p. 31)

When the Apostle of God shook hands with a man he would not be the first to withdraw his hand, and when he was facing a man he would not turn his face away till the other turned his, nor was he ever seen with his knees crossed in front of one of his guest...  He did not chatter uninterruptedly as you do, but he used to speak with proper pauses so that those who sat with him could memorise it...  Never did I see anyone who smiled more than the Apostle of God...  When he sat down to converse (he) would often lift his gaze to the skies. (Ibid. p. 32)

The Apostle of God was neither dissolute nor immoderate in speech.  He was not one who talked loudly in the streets, nor did he return evil for evil, but rather he would pardon and forgive.  He was accustomed to visit the sick, follow the bier (at a funeral), would accept an invitation even from a slave, and would ride on a donkey. (Ibid. p. 30, translation modified; partly quoted in Introducing Islam)

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Hadith qudsi

According to Jonathan Brown, Hadith qudsi are “not considered the literal word of God. Only their meaning issues from God, while their wording comes from Muhammad . . . . they were not revealed via the intermediacy of  the angel Gabriel . . , the Prophet may have heard them during his Ascension [from Jerusalem, Al-Quds in Arabic] . . . , in a dream or through inspiration (ilham).”   (Brown, Jonathan A. C. [2009] Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, One World: Oxford, p. 62)

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Probably the best known and most controversial of those who emphasize strongly the hadiths but also criticize them vigorously, sometimes with unusual results is Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (1914–99), who has been influential in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. (See Brown, Hadith, pp. 258–59)

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Here is a fuller version of the quotation from al-‘Aqqād found on p. 95 of Introducing Islam

[This] book is not an explanation of Islam or any of its provisions nor a defense of it nor a debate with its opponents, . . .  Rather it is an evaluation of the “genius of Muhammad” to the extent that it can be affirmed by every man and not only by the Muslim, and by virtue of the love of him diffused in the heart of every man and not of the Muslim only.

  Muhammad is a great hero because his virtues and exploits are a model that any sincere person would want all men to emulate.  He is great because his character is great . . . .To give greatness its due is necessary in all times and places, but especially in this time and in our world . . . .It is useful for the Muslim to evaluate Muhammad by the evidence and proofs that the non-Muslim can see because a Muslim who does so will love Muhammad doubly, once by virtue of his religion, which the other does not share, and once by virtue of his human qualities which all men can share.  (‘Aqqad, Abbas Mahmoud [n.d.] ‘Abqariyat Muhammad (The Genius of Muhammad), revised ed., Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Haditha, pp. 6–8)

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Taha Hussein on the biography (sīra) of the Prophet (cf. p. 94 of Introducing Islam).

If reason is not content with these accounts and tales, and if logic is not satisfied with them, and if they do not measure up to the canons of scientific thinking, still there is something in the hearts of the people, in their feelings, their emotions, their imagination, their inclination toward the simple, their desire to seek refuge in it from the struggle and hardship of life, that makes them love and desire these accounts and that moves them to seek in them relaxation for their souls when life bears harshly upon them. There is a great difference between the person who relates these accounts to the intellect as scientifically established truths and acceptable bases for investigation, and the one who presents them to the heart and the feelings as something that will stir up good emotions, deflect evil impulses, and help them to pass the time and bear the burdens and demands of life.

I want people also to know that I have allowed myself the storyteller’s liberty and inventiveness in relating these accounts and tales wherever I saw no harm in so doing, but not when the stories and accounts touch the person of the Prophet or any aspect of religion. At those points I gave myself neither freedom nor latitude, but stuck strictly to that which is accepted by the ancient authorities on the Sira and the hadith, the experts on the sources of transmission, and the scholars of religion.

(From: "Taha Hussein: Interpreting Muhammad's Life in Modern Times", translated from the Introduction to ‘Ala Hāmish al-Sīrah), in Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim Sources on Spirituality and Religious Life, ed. John Renard (Berkeley, etc.: University of California Press, 1998), p. 129.

Abu A‘la Mawdudi, a leading Islamist, on the Prophet:

Such was our Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).  He was a prodigy of extraordinary merits, a paragon of virtue and goodness, a symbol of truth and veracity, a great apostle of God, His Messenger to the entire world.  His life and thought, his truth and straightforwardness, his piety and goodness, his character and morals, his ideology and achievements – all stand as unimpeachable proofs of his prophethood.  Any human being who studies his life and teachings without bias will testify that verily he was the true prophet of God and the Qur'an – the Book he gave to mankind – the true Book of God.  No unbiased and serious seeker after truth can escape this conclusion (Mawdudi, A. A. [1960] Towards Understanding Islam. Lahore: Idara Tarjumanul-Quran, p. 78).

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 Western scholarly assessments: two contrasting views

He gained men's respect and confidence by the religious basis of his activity and by qualities such as courage, resoluteness, impartiality and firmness inclining to severity but tempered by generosity.  In addition to these he had a charm of manner which won their affection and secured their devotion . . . .  The more one reflects on the history of Muḥammad and of early Islam, the more one is amazed at the vastness of his achievement. Circumstances presented him with an opportunity such as few men have had, but the man was fully matched with the hour. Had it not been for his gifts as seer, statesman, and administrator and, behind these, his trust in God and firm belief that God had sent him, a notable chapter in the history of mankind would have remained unwritten . . . .  He was a man in whom creative imagination worked at deep levels and produced ideas relevant to the central questions of human existence, so that his religion has had a widespread appeal, not only in his own age but in succeeding centuries. Not all the ideas he proclaimed are true and sound, but by God’s grace he has been enabled to provide millions of men with a better religion than they had before they testified that there is no god but God and that  Muḥammad is the messenger of God.   (Watt, W. M. [1961] Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman.London: Oxford University Press,pp. 231–41)

(Beneath the surface) was a temperament which was nervous, passionate, restless, feverish – filled with an impatient yearning which burned for the impossible. This was so intense as to lead to nervous crises of a definitely pathological kind...  Muhammad was certainly dissatisfied.  Were there more tangible reasons for an attitude of mind without which his later development cannot be understood, and if so what were they?  ... The troubles of a man mocked for his lack of male heirs, the frustration of a highly sexed man whose own moral conscience prevented him from realising his desires, the suppressed fury of a man fundamentally sure of himself but treated with contempt by practical politicans – all these things were capable of creating a personality thirsting to turn the tables in each particular, but still keeping strictly within the normal bounds of the society in which he lived.  There was something in Muhammad which made him overstep those bounds. (Rodinson,Maxime[1971] Muhammad, London: Allen Lane, p. 53f.)

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Chapter 7: Rituals and Ceremonies

In connection with the text box on p. 107 of Introducing Islam see comments about the film on ‘Umar at http://tabsir.net/?p=1870.

See also the description of Ramadan television in “Muslim women and contemporary veiling” in “Indonesian sinetron” by Rachmah Ida, Chapter 2 in Blackburn, Susan, Smith, Bianca J. and Syamsiyatun, Siti (eds) (2008) Indonesian Islam in a New Era: How Women Negotiate their Muslim Identities. Clayton: Monash University Press.

Chapter 8: Divisions in the Umma: Sects, Political Theory

List of Twelver Imams from Chapter 8 PowerPoint slide 8:

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Al-Ghazali on the Imamate

The following is a translation of the chapter "The Imamate" from The Golden Mean in Belief (Al-Iqtisad fi al-I‘tiqad), a book on kalam. It is one of at least three places where he spells out his view. Another is in his lengthy refutation of the Isma‘ilis, entitled Al-Mustazhiriyya (English translation can be found in Freedom and Fulfillment, trans, R. J. McCarthy, Boston: Twayne, 1980) and the third is found in his opus magnum, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din. Al-Ghazali’s position is described briefly in the textbook on p. 129. Note that the saying “Religion and government (sultan) are twins” is generally believed to originate in pre-Islamic Iran. The word sultan originally meant “authority” but by al-Ghazali’s time had come to refer to the holder of authority.

Enquiry into the Imamate is not an important matter [for kalam], nor is it one of the philosophical issues within jurisprudence (fiqh). Moreover, it is apt to stir up partisan passions, so it is safer to avoid discussing it than to plunge into it even if one finds the correct answers, let alone if one errs. But it has become the accepted practice to close doctrinal treatises with it, and so we will follow this customary procedure since people are strongly averse to procedures that contradict what they are used to. Our treatment of it will be brief, however. Speculation on this matter involves three points:

THE FIRST POINT: Demonstration of the obligation to appoint an imam.

You must not think that this obligation is derived from reason, for we have already demonstrated that obligations are derived only from revelation (shar‘). To be sure, if one interprets the word "obligation" to mean an action which brings benefit and whose omission causes even the slightest harm, then one would not deny that there is a obligation to appoint an imam [based on reason], since it does provide for worldly benefit and repel worldly harm. We, however, shall prove conclusively that this obligation is based on revelation, and we will not be content to rest the case on the consensus ijma‘ of the umma. Rather, we shall show what this consensus is based on.

We begin by stating that the proper ordering of the religious life was unquestionably a goal of the Prophet, upon him be peace; this is a premise which is certain and about which no dispute is conceivable. To this we add another premise, viz., that the proper ordering of religious life can be achieved only be means of a leader (imam) who commands obedience. From the two premises there follows the truth of what was originally asserted, viz. that it is obligatory to appoint an imam.

An objector may say that second premise, viz. that the right ordering of the religious life can be achieved only by means of an imam who commands obedience, cannot be granted without demonstration. We would then say that the proof is that the right ordering of religious life can be achieved only by the right ordering of worldly life, and the right ordering of worldly life is achieved only by means of a leader (imam) who commands obedience. Can there be any debate about either of these two premises?

It may also be asked why we say that the right ordering of religious life can be achieved only by means of the right ordering of worldly life, when in fact it is achieved only at the expense of worldly life, for religious life and worldly life are incompatible, since to promote one of them is to destroy the other.

Our answer would be that these are the words of one who does not understand what we mean here by "worldly life", for it is an ambiguous term which may be used in the sense of excessive enjoyment and pleasure and of unnecessary luxury but also may be used in the sense of everything a person needs before death. One of these is contrary to religious life, but the other is a necessary condition for it.  So it is that one errs if one does not distinguish between the different meanings of ambiguous words.  So we say that the right ordering of religious life depends on knowledge and worship and these are achieved only with bodily health, preservation of life, the basic necessities of food, shelter and clothing, and security against disaster. I swear that whoever has become secure in his mind, healthy in his body, and has his daily food, it is as if he had obtained the whole of worldly life. A person's spirit, body, possessions, home and food, however, are secure only under some conditions, not all, and religious life can be properly ordered only when these important necessities have become secure. Otherwise, the person will have to spend all his time protecting himself from the swords of oppressors or seeking his daily bread from usurpers and will have no time free for learning or right endeavour, which are the means to blessedness in the future life. Therefore it is evident that the right ordering of worldly life, to the extent of basic necessities, is a necessary condition for the right ordering of religious life.

As for the second premise, viz. that worldly life and security of person and property can be rightly ordered only by means of a ruler (sultan) who commands obedience, the evidence for it can be seen in the times of civil strife following the deaths of rulers and imams. If such times lasted very long and were not ended by the appointment of another ruler who commanded obedience, the disorder would continue, fighting would spread, people would be in want, livestock would perish, industry would cease and the strong would plunder at will. Those who survived would have no time for worship or learning, while the majority would perish by the edge of the sword. Therefore it is said: "Religion and government (sultan) are twins", and "Religion is a foundation and government (sultan) is a guard; whatever has no foundation is demolished and whatever has no guard is lost." In general, no rational person can dispute the point that humans, given their social differences, the diversity of their desires and the wide disparity of their opinions, would perish to the last person if they were abandoned to their own devices and were not united in obedience to a single opinion. This is an illness which has no cure except a strong ruler (sultan) who commands obedience and imposes unity on the diversity of opinions. So it is clear that a ruler is necessary for the right ordering of worldly life, the right ordering of world life is necessary for the right ordering of religious life, and the right ordering of religious life is necessary for achieving blessedness in the future life, and this is the definitive aim of the prophets.  Therefore, the obligation to appoint an imam is a necessity based on revelation and one which may not be neglected.

THE SECOND POINT: Explaining who is to be singled out from among the rest of humankind to be appointed imam.

We say that it is clear that an imam cannot be designated arbitrarily and that he must be distinguished by characteristics that mark him off from the rest of humankind, some of these being characteristics found in him personally and some characteristics involving other people. As for those found in him personally, they are as follows: that he be capable of administering the people's affairs and leading them along the right paths, something which demands competence, learning and scrupulous piety. In brief, the characteristics required of judges are required of him, and then in addition he must be descended from the Quraysh.  This fourth condition is known by authoritative tradition, since the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, said, "The imams are from the Quraysh." This distinguishes him from most of humankind; but it may be that there are found among the Quraysh a number of people with the above mentioned characteristics, so there is need for yet another characteristic to distinguish him and that can only be appointment or authorization by one or more others, for he is singled out for the imamate when he in particular is appointed, to the exclusion of anyone else. 

It remains now to consider the characteristics of the one who appoints, for that cannot be left to just anyone but demands particular characteristics. Appointment can take one of three forms: either designation by the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, or designation by the current imam when he chooses as his heir apparent a particular person from among his children or other members of the Quraysh, or by authorization by a military leader who has the power to compel the others to accept his decision and give prompt allegiance to the person so authorized. In some ages authorization may be carried out by one person who is highly regarded, has a strong following, and is in control of things generally. It is sufficient for him to make the authorization and give the oath of allegiance even if others do not participate in the authorization process, since the aim is to unite a diversity of people under one person who commands obedience, and this happens when the imam receives obedience by virtue of receiving the oath of allegiance from someone else who commands obedience [i.e. the sultan]. Sometimes the necessary power may not be in the hands of one person but of two or more persons, so that it is necessary for them to come together and agree on the authorization and give the oath of allegiance so that the imam will receive full obedience.  I will go further and say that if after the death of the imam there was only one member of the Quraysh who commanded obedience and had a following and this person took over the imamate, appointed himself as the successor, and effectively carried out its functions, and if he made the rest of the people follow him by virtue of his power and competence, while possessing the [other] characteristics appropriate to imams, then his imamate would be valid and obedience to him would be obligatory. He would have been singled out by virtue of his power and his competence, and opposing him would mean stirring up civil strife. In fact, though, such a person would be strong enough to exact the oath of allegiance from the magnates and authorities of the time, and that would make his position less open to question. Therefore, such a person usually takes power only after being authorized [by others] and receiving the oath of allegiance.

Someone may say: Assuming that the goal is to have a person of sound views who commands obedience and who can impose his authority on the diversity of opinions and keep the people from warring and fighting and procure their material and eternal well-being, let us suppose that someone took control who fulfilled all the conditions except those of judges [i.e. competence, learning and piety] but, in place of these, was willing to consult the scholars and act according to their dictates, what would be your opinion?  Would it be obligatory to oppose him and remove him or would it be obligatory to obey him?

Our categorical reply would be that it would be obligatory to remove him if he could be replaced by someone fulfilling all the conditions without stirring up civil disorder and provoking fighting. But if this could not be done without causing fighting, it would be obligatory to obey him and recognise his imamate as legitimate, for what we would lose by the fact that he depends on the advice of others rather than being himself learned is less than what we would lose by appointing the more qualified one if this meant we had go through a civil war whose consequences we could not foresee, but which would probably lead to considerable loss of life and property.  The requirement of learning is added only to provide for improving and perfecting the wellbeing of society, but it is not permissible to destroy the basis of society's wellbeing out of a desire to improve and perfect it. These are juristic matters which can lead some to absurdities and contradictions, but let them leave such excesses since the matter is easier than they think. We have given a full and complete analysis of this matter in the book entitled "Al-Mustazhiri", composed to refute the Isma‘ilis.

Someone may say: You have relaxed the requirement of learning in the imam, so you must also relax the requirement for justice and other traits.

In response we will say that our relaxation is not by choice, but necessity makes forbidden things permissible (mubah). For example, we know that it is forbidden to eat carrion, but to let oneself die of hunger is even worse. Now I really wonder who would refuse to support our position and would declare that the imamate in our age is invalid because it does not fulfil all the conditions, when he cannot replace the one who is currently carrying out that role or even find anyone who does fulfil the conditions.  Which option is better: that he declare all the judges deposed, all public authority invalid, all marriages anulled and the actions of all governors in the various parts of the world void, and, indeed, everything that everyone is doing forbidden, or that he declare the imamate valid, by virtue of circumstance and necessity, and thus the governing authorities and actions of the governors legitimate?  Now, he has three choices: (1) he can prevent people from marrying or taking other actions which require the authorization of the judges, something which is impossible since it would paralyze all gainful activity, result in anarchy and cause the people to perish, or (2) he can say that they are marrying and doing the other things and in so doing they are engaging in forbidden actions, but they will not be judged immoral or sinful because of the overriding necessity in the situation, or (3) he can take our position and declare that the imamate is valid even though not all the conditions for it are fulfilled because of the overriding necessity in the situation. It is well known that something unacceptable becomes acceptable when it is compared with something even less acceptable, and the lesser of two evils is a relative good which the rational person must choose. Now, this completes the argument of this section and the intelligent person will not need a lengthier discussion. He who does not quickly understand the true nature and cause of something but requires a long time to comprehend will always reject what contradicts his ingrained ways of thinking. Weaning the weak-minded from their habitual ways of thinking is an arduous task which even the prophets have been unable to accomplish, so what can be expected of others? 

Someone may ask: Why don't you say that designation by the Prophet or his successor (caliph) is obligatory, in order to cut the root of disagreement, as some of the Twelver Shi‘Is (Imamis) assert?

Our answer is that if it were obligatory the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, would have stipulated it, but he did not do so, nor did Umar.  Rather, the imamates of the Abu Bakr, Uthman and Ali, may God be pleased with them, stood firm on the basis of authorization. Pay no attention to the willful ignorance of those who allege that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, designated Ali so as to end disputes but that the Companions haughtily opposed the designation and suppressed knowledge of it. One could counter this in similar terms by claiming that the Prophet designated Abu Bakr and the Companions unanimously agreed (i.e. ijma‘) that he was suitable for this designation and followed him. This claim would be more credible than the claim that they haughtily opposed the designation and suppressed it. Furthermore, one could only imagine that such a designation was obligatory because it was difficult to eliminate dissension, but it is no excuse since the oath of allegiance itself eliminates the basis of dissension, as is proven by the lack of dissension in the time of Abu Bakr and Uthman (sic) may God be pleased with them, even though they had taken office by this oath, while dissension became prevalent in the time of Ali, may God be pleased with him, even though according to the Shi‘is he took office on the basis of designation.

THE THIRD POINT: Explanation of the doctrine of the People of the True Path (ahl al-sunna, i.e. Sunnis) on the Companions and the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

Know that on the subject of the Companions and the Caliphs, people go to great extremes. Some praise them exaggeratedly, even to the point of alleging that the imams are infallible, while others attack and slanderously censure the Companions. Don't be in either group, but follow the path of the golden mean in belief. Know that the Book of God contains praise for the Emigrants and the Helpers and there are unquestionably sound (mutawatir) reports in which the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, attests their good character in various words, such as his statements, "My Companions are like the stars, whichever you follow you will be rightly guided," and, "The best people are my generation, then those who follow them." There is not one of them who has not somewhere been singled out for praise, but it would take too long to present all this. So you must adopt this belief concerning them, and in connection with the accounts of their disagreements, you must not think badly of them but give them the benefit of the doubt. For most of what is transmitted about them is the invention of partisan fanaticism with no basis in fact. What is not invention is open to interpretation, and it is not permissible to accept reports of errors or oversights by them which one cannot reasonably find a way to excuse and interpret as being motivated by good intentions even though they turned out to be wrong. In the famous case of the fight between Mu‘awiya and Ali, and the journey of ‘A’isha, may God be pleased with them, to Basra, we must suppose that ‘A’isha was trying to stop the civil war but that matters got out of control, so that the end result was not what she had originally intended but quite different (so-called “Battle of the Camel”). Concerning Mu‘awiya we must suppose that he had his own interpretations and suppositions about what he was doing. Whatever else is said about this comes from isolated (not mutawatir) reports and is a mixture of truth and error. Most of the differences result from the inventions of the Shi‘is or the Kharijis, or by meddlesome people who delve excessively into these matters. So you must stick to the practice of rejecting reports that are not proven and discovering a suitable interpretation for ones that are proven, and if that is too difficult, then say that perhaps there is an interpretation or an excuse that you are not aware of. Know that in this situation you are faced with two possibilities: one is that you form a bad opinion of a Muslim and tell slanderous lies about him, and the other is that you mistakenly form a good opinion of him and refrain from criticizing him. It is safer erroneously to hold a good opinion about a Muslim than to defame him with accurate criticisms.  For if a person during his whole life refrained, for example, from cursing the devil, or Abu Jahl or Abu Lahab or another evil person, his silence would not harm him, but if he made a single error in accusing a Muslim of something of which he is innocent in God's sight, he would expose himself to perdition. In fact, it is not licit to speak of most of what one knows about people because of the great importance that the Divine Law (shar‘) gives to preventing slander even when the allegations made are true.  So whoever pays attention to these points and is not meddlesome will prefer to keep silence and maintain a good opinion of all Muslims and to employ his tongue in the praise all the Righteous Forefathers. This then is the proper attitude to the Companions generally. As for the Rightly Guided Caliphs, they are more virtuous than the others and their rank in virtue, in the view of the People of the True Path, is the same as the order in which they took up the imamate. When we say, however, that someone is more virtuous than someone else, this must not be taken to mean that he occupies a higher position with God in the afterlife. This is one of the secrets known only to God, and to His Messenger if He has informed him of it, and we cannot adduce any decisive and unquestionably authentic (mutawatir) texts from the Prophet that compel us to rank them in this order. Rather, what is transmitted is praise of them all, and to come to a judgment as to their relative virtue on the basis of the details of the Prophet's praise of them is to aim in the dark and meddle rashly in the affairs of others, something which God has saved us from having to do. To try to discern someone's virtue in God's sight from his actions is problematic and produces no more than a guess. How many persons there are who outwardly do forbidden things and yet hold a place in God's sight of which even they are not aware and have hidden inward virtues! And how many are adorned with the outward acts of worship, and yet are the objects of God's wrath because of vices nestled within them. For God alone knows the secrets of people's hearts. But now, it is undoubtedly the case that someone's true virtue can be known only by revelation, and one can know what the Prophet reported only by dependable transmission, and furthermore those whose transmission is most dependable in matters that indicate the differing degrees of virtue [of the early caliphs] are those Companions who were constantly with the Prophet – may God bless him and grant him peace – and best knew about his spiritual experiences. They agreed on the priority of Abu Bakr, and that Abu Bakr then designated Umar and that after him they agreed on Uthman and then on Ali, may God be pleased with them. Since it cannot be supposed that they would betray the religion of God for any motive, their agreement (ijma‘) is the best evidence concerning the relative virtues of these caliphs. Therefore, the Sunnis accepted this ranking in virtue and then investigated the reports and found them to support the Companions and the people of consensus (ijma‘) in this ranking.

Now this is the brief presentation that we wanted to make of the rules and judgments concerning the imamate, and God knows best and makes the best judgments.

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Persianate Views and Ideas of Kingship:

Note: The Denkart is a late Zoroastrian text; the others are from Muslim sources.

Nor can religion be stable without royalty

Nor can royalty be permanent without religion:

They are two foundations interlaced with one another,

Which intelligence hath combined in one.

(Firdowsi in Martin, V. (1989) Islam and Modernism. London: Tauris, p. 33)

'The principal characteristic of kings is pleasure . . . pleasure is consonant with kingship provided it is rooted in greatness.  Pleasure rooted in greatness does not pass away.' (Denkart; Zaehner, R. C. (1961) The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism.London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p. 299)

[If the shah rules well] 'The empire will prosper, the common people will be freed from fear and enjoy a good life, science will advance, culture will be looked after, good manners will be further refined, and men will be generous, just and grateful, many a virtue will they practice and perfect will their goodness be.' (Denkart)

In every age and time God (be He exalted) chooses one member of the human race and, having endowed him with goodly and kingly virtues, entrusts him with the interests of the world and the well-being of His servants; He charges that person to close the doors of corruption, confusion and discord, and He imparts to him such dignity and majesty in the eyes and hearts of men, that under his just rule they may live their lives in constant security and ever wish for his reign to continue. (Nizam al-Mulk (1960) The Book of Government or Rules for Kings, 2nd ed., trans. Hubert Darke. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 9)

A contrasting view from the Iranian revolution:

"The government of the Commander of the Faithful (i.e. Ali) . . . was not a form of monarchy.  In a monarchy the rulers seize the property of their people, . . . in a monarchy we find palaces, servants  . . . and all sorts of luxuries which are paid for from the national budget.  However, if we consider the form of government which ‘Ali instituted we do not find such things.  The Commander of the Faithful ruled over a vast country which included, among its other provinces, Egypt, Iran and Arabia. Yet he lived as a humble and a simple man . . . .  This man who ruled over a vast land used to wear a torn and timeworn garb." (Ayatollah Montazeri, sermon, 1979)

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Chapter 9: Those Who Know: The ‘Ulamā’

Forthcoming

Chapter 10: To Know God’s Will, Islamic Law

“Necessity” (ḍarūra) as a considertion in fiqh judgements:

An example of this treatment of necessity is found in al-Ghazali on caliphate. (See above on this website under chapter eight.)

Chapter 11: Philosophy and Theology

The Traditionalist school of theology is sometimes called Hanbali, but I prefer to use this name only for the Hanbali madhhab of fiqh. Traditionalist theology should not be called kalam, since they rejected it, but usul al-din or ‘ilm al-tawhid may be used for it.

George Makdisi explains the importance of Traditionalism and the reasons why earlier Western scholars failed to recognize it. See the first part of “Hanbalite Islam” in Swartz, Merlin L. (ed.) (1981) Studies on Islam. New York and Oxford: OUP.

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Qur’an and Christ (expanding on “They are thus like the Christians . . .”, p. 166 in Introducing Islam )

It is worth noting that the Traditionalist position on the Qur’an parallels the orthodox Christian position on Christ as the uncreated Son and Word (Logos) of God and the Mu‘tazili position parallels that of the Arians, who believed Christ to be the highest of creatures. In fact, the caliph al-Ma’mun, a supporter of the Mu‘tazila, complained of the Traditionalists, “They are, thus, like the Christians when they claim that ‘Isa the son of Mary was not created because he was the word of God” (Grunebaum, 1966, 104–5). The view of the attributes as “not he and not other than he” is reminiscent of the Christian view of the relationship among the Persons of the Trinity. Likewise, the view of the relation between the uncreated Qur’an and the written and recited Qur’an seems reminiscent of the orthodox Christian view of the human and divine natures of Christ. There could be Christian influence here but it may also be that similar issues bring forth similar solutions. As suggested in chapter five, the Qur’an occupies for Muslims a place similar to that which Christ occupies for Christians.

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Complications of Qadar

Qaḍā’ wa-qadar, “predestination” (p. 167 in Introducing Islam).  The word qaḍā’  means “decreeing” or “determining”; the word qadar has these meanings but also has the meaning of “measuring out”. The phrase is usually understood to mean that God decrees or determines things at the beginning of time and then “measures them out”, i.e. causes them to happen at particular times. Qadar may also be used in a sense close to that of the English word “fate”. The root from which qadar comes may also convey the idea of power or ability and the early qadarīs (adherents of qadar) believed in human power over actions.

“Whoever God guides, he is rightly guided and whoever He leads astray, they are the losers” (7:178, cf. 14:4, 16:93, 35:8, 74:31)

Some translators translate along the lines of “allows to stray” or “lets go astray him who wills”. (e.g. Abdel Haleem, Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Asad). The idea is that God only leads astray those who have already chosen to go astray, an interpretation that fits Mu‘tazili thinking. Muhammad Asad gives a detailed explanation of this in his commentary on Qur’an 14:4. In fact, however, the other translation is the most obvious translation of the Arabic text.

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Chapter 12: The Sufi Path to God

For a description of the Jesus prayer see: http://www.orthodoxprayer.org/Jesus%20Prayer.html.

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Hadith Qudsi,

Here is a version of the full text of the hadith qudsi quote in part on p. 179 of Introducing Islam.

“Verily Allah, may He be exulted, has said: ‘Whosoever shows enmity to a wali (friend) of Mine, then I have declared war against him. And My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the religious duties I have made obligatory to him. And My servant continues to draw near to me with nawafil* until I love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, and his sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him; and were he to seek refuge with Me, I would surely grant him refuge.’” (al-Bukhari).

* Nawafil are acts of devotion beyond the five pillars.

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Al-Hallaj, the Martyr of Love

Al-Hallaj is probably the best known of the early Sufis, famous as the “intoxicated” Sufi who was a martyr for his love of God. His full name was Abu Abdullah Al-Husayn ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj (857–922). “Al-Hallaj” means “carder of cotton” and this was probably his father’s occupation, but it came to be interpreted in his case as “carder of hearts”.

He was born in southern Iran and traveled to Basra, where he spent time with Sahl al-Tustari, another of the famous early Sufis. From there he went to Baghdad, where he frequented al-Junayd and other Sufi masters and married the daughter of a Sufi. He fell out with some of the Sufis, however, and went on Hajj to Mecca, where he is said to have performed extraordinary feats of asceticism. On his return he fell out with al-Junayd. It is said that he had knocked at al-Junayd's door and when asked who was there, said "Ana al-Haqq (I am the Truth/Real)”.  Then he wandered throughout Iran for some years, finally making a second Hajj, accompanied by 400 disciples. He then traveled to India, to call people to God, as he claimed, or to learn magic, as his opponents claimed. On his return to Baghdad he encountered even greater hostility from many Sufis and, in 913, set out for a third Hajj but was arrested and imprisoned. He had strong supporters and strong enemies and it was 922 before a death sentence was approved and he was executed, an outcome it is said he sought as the culmination of his quest in love for union with God. His last words may be translated, “It is enough for the one who has found the One to be made one with the One.”

His statement, “I am the Truth/Reality”, which may be taken to mean “I am God” since Al-Haqq is a name of God and a particularly important one for the Sufis, may have been a reason for his execution. From the Sufi viewpoint, however, the problem lies not in the statement itself, since it is a shath, a statement in ecstasy that is not to be taken literally, but the fact that he said it openly, i.e. revealed a secret which is meant only for the adepts. There were other probably more important reasons for his execution.  He had made statements that could be taken as claiming equality with the Prophet and had said that under some circumstance major obligations could be replaced with other actions.  His charismatic character led his enemies to fear him as a crafty magician who was trying to seduce people. There were also fears that he was in touch with enemies of the Abbasids, such as the Qarmatis, through whose lands he had traveled.

“Ana al-haqq” is undoubtedly the most famous of his sayings and has become both a literary trope and a focus of continuing debate. It appears at several points in al-Hallaj’s writings or in the stories about him. The version translated below comes from a late work of his called Tawasin, chapter 6, verses 20–25, and may in fact be an interpolation in the text, though it is traditionally seen as representing al-Hallaj’s thinking. In the chapter in which this passage is set Iblis (the devil or Satan) defends his refusal to bow down to Adam at God’s command (Qur’an 7:11ff., 15:29ff., etc.) as the ultimate of love and submission to God since he refused to worship any thing other than God. (The Arabic word for “bowed down” refers to one of the actions in the performance of salah and therefore implies worship.) This passage compares Al-Hallaj’s position with Iblis’s refusal and also with Pharoah’s refusal to recognize God as Lord, also found in the Qur’an (28:36ff., cf. 26:29, 79:24), treating them as examples of futuwwa, a tradition among Muslims something like the medieval Western tradition of chivalry with an emphasis on bravery and honour. I have translated it as “steadfast valour” the first time and “valour” thereafter. Gabriel filling Pharaoh’s mouth with sand refers to a hadith according to which Gabriel attempted to prevent Pharaoh from confessing faith in God at the moment of death, as he did according to the Qur’an (10:91, interpreters differ as to whether this confession was accepted).

[20] Abu ‘Umara al-Hallaj, the strange master, said:

I debated with Iblis and Pharoah on the subject of steadfast valour (futuwwa).
Iblis said, “If I had bowed down [before Adam], the name of valour would have fallen from me.”
Pharoah said, “If I had affirmed faith in the Prophet, I would have been ejected from the rank of valour.”

[21] I said, “If I had gone back on what I had claimed, I would have been thrown from the carpet of valour.”

[22] Iblis said, “I am better than he” (Qur’an 7:12), when he saw none other than himself.
Pharoah said, “I know of no other god (ilah) for you than me” (Qur’an 28:38). He knew of no one among his people who could distinguish the Real from what is created.

[23] As for me, I said, “If you do not recognize Him, at least recognize His trace. I am that trace, I am the Real (Ana al-Haqq), because I have never ceased to be a reality (haqq) in the Real (Haqq).”

[24] My companion and teacher are Iblis and Pharoah.

Iblis was threatened with hellfire but did not go back on what he had claimed.

Pharoah was drowned in the sea, but did not go back on what he had claimed and did not accept any mediator at all. But he said, “I believe that there is no god but He in whom the people of Israel believe” (Qur’an 10:90). Don’t you see that God (may He be praised) opposed Gabriel at his gate and said “Why have you filled his mouth with sand?”

[25] I was killed and my hands and feet were cut off but I did not go back on what I had claimed.

(This translation follows fairly closely that of Michael Sells [1996] in his Early Islamic Mysticism, New York: Paulist Press, 1p. 277. Two other translations are those of Louis Massignon [1982] in The Passion of Al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam, trans. H. Mason, Princeton: Princeton University Press, vol. 3, pp. 356–57, and Aisha Abd ar-Rahman, trans. [1974] The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj. Berkeley: Diwan Press, pp. 46–47.)

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Mevlana (Our Master) Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207–273)

(Most of the following synopsis is derived from Schimmel, Annemarie [1975] Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 309–24.)

Rumi is probably the most widely known and revered of the great Sufi masters, both in the Muslim world, especially the Persianate part of it, and in the West. He was born near Balkh in Central Asia but his family fled the area in the face of the advancing Mongols and in 1228 settled in Konya, then under Saljuk rule and now part of modern Turkey. Konya had a considerable Greek Christian as well as Turkish Muslim population and a lively intellectual life. A few years later he took over the teaching position of his father, a noted ‘alim, and received Sufi guidance from a friend of his father. He was also a friend of the main commentator on Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings. In 1244 he met Shams-i Din-i Tabrizi, a strange and powerful personality, possibly one of the wandering Sufis called Qalandaris, who claimed to have reached a very high mystical station. Shams kindled in Rumi a passionate mystical love (‘ishq), that led him to neglect his family and disciples for months on end.  In time they forced Shams to leave town but he returned to a passionate reunion with Rumi; it is said that when they embraced “one did not know who was lover and who was beloved” (Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 313). The next time they made him “disappear” permanently (his tomb was found in the twentieth century). Rumi desperately sought for Shams until he found him living within himself, united with him. Out of this experience his great poetry was born; it was as much Shams’s as his, and one of his major collections of poetry is call Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz [The Collected Poems of Shams-i Tabriz]. This passionate relationship between two men mirrors the relationship of the soul and God, but to say “mirrors” is certainly too weak a statement. Later Rumi had more sober relationships with the successor of his first teacher and with one of his own disciples.

Rumi died in 1273 but his disciples continued and under his son and second spiritual successor the hierarchy and “whirling” dhikr were organized. His literary output was vast but does not lend itself to simple interpretation or systemizing. They reflect many influences, including that of the philosophers such as Ibn Sina, as may be seen from the following popular lines:
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish,
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e’er conceived.
O let me not exist! For Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones “To him shall we return!”
(from Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 322)

These lines illustrate the problems of interpreting Rumi. While they most obviously reflect a mystical appropriation of philosophical ideas with allusions to the Qur’an at the end, twentieth-century modernists have often interpreted them in terms of Darwinian evolution and it would be easy also to interpret them in terms of reincarnation.

The headquarters of the Mevlevi tariqa has been in Konya to the present time and Rumi’s mausoleum there is a goal of ziyara (Sufi pilgrimage). The tariqa eventually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire but his poetry spread far beyond that, particularly to the Iranian and Indian worlds.  It was officially closed in Turkey in 1925 but in practice continued and eventually was allowed to present dhikrs publicly once a year. Since the 1970s dhikrs have been performed on tour in Western countries. Rumi’s mausoleum was officially converted into a museum in 1927 but the state can hardly control what goes on in the minds of visitors.

Additional reading:

Schimmel, Annemarie (1993) The Triumphal Sun. Albany: SUNY Press.

Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana (1968) Mystical Poems of Rumi, trans. A. J. Arberry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana (1968) Discourses of Rumi, trans. A. J. Arberry. London: J. Murray.

Friedlander, Ira (1975) The Whirling Dervishes: Being an Account of the Sufi Order Known as the Mevlevis and its Founder, the Poet and Mystic Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi. London: Wildwood House.

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Material on Ahmad al-Badawi (1199–276) and the Tanta mulid (mawlid)

For an account of the life of Ahmad al-Badawi see: http://www.maktabah-ibn-badawi.com/english/badawi.htm

The author also has an article on Ahmad al-Badawi in the forthcoming Biographical Dictionary of Islamic Culture and Civilisation (I.B. Tauris).

(Mulid is the colloquial form of the word mawlid, “saint’s birthday”, and the form of the word usually used in discussing them. The following material is based largely on Reeves, Edward [1990] The Hidden Government: Ritual, Clientelism and

Legitimation in Northern Egypt. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, pp. 45–52 and 113–33 which includes his observations of the mulids of 1977 and 1978 and my own observations of the mulid of 1977, with some reference to Gilsenan, Michael [1973] Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt. Oxford: Clarendon Press, Chapter II. The pictures are from the mulid of 1977.)

Ahmad al-Badawi (1199–278) was the founder of Ahmadiyya tariqa, perhaps the most popular tariqa in Egypt. His family is said to have originated in Arabia and to be descendants of the Prophet’s grandson, al-Husayn. They migrated to Morocco early in the Islamic era and Ahmad was born in Fez. Soon afterwards the family went on Hajj to Mecca and Ahmad remained there until his father’s death in 1237. One version of his boyhood makes him a student prodigy while another makes him a skilled dueller and horseman. He and his brother then spent time visiting the shrines of walis in Iraq, having been encouraged by the walis Ahmad al-Rifa‘i and ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, and Ahmad began to demonstrate supernatural powers, among other things defeating the temptations of a female jinni, who then became his follower. He then returned to Mecca and meditated in a cave, as the Prophet had, and a “secret voice” commanded him to go to Tanta, in the Delta region of Egypt. He was 40 years old, the same age as the Prophet was when he received his first revelations. In Tanta Ahmad is said to have performed many karamat and also to attract a following of other Sufis. He miraculously saved the life of an infant who later became his favourite disciple. He would stay on the roof of a house in a state of ecstasy for 40 days, fasting and meditating, and staring into the sun. He is said to have received commands. He outshone the many other walis and scholars said to have been in Tanta, some of whom became his followers and some of whom were his rivals and suffered for it. He is said to have received homage from the Mamluke sultan and to have participated in fighting the Christian Crusaders and miraculously freed Muslim captives. Many today like to emphasize his role in fighting the Crusaders and an official of Ahmad Mosque in Tanta has compared him to George Washington.
(Synopsis based largely on Reeves, The Hidden Government, pp. 45–52.)

The word mulid means birthday but a mulid does not necessarily fall on the actual birthday of the wali. The mulid of Ahmad al-Badawi began when a vast number of his followers came to Tanta to pledge allegiance to his successor. For a long time the mulid was held in August, when the Nile flood was at its height. Later two smaller festivals came to be celebrated for Ahmad al-Badawi in Tanta, one at the wheat and barley harvest and one possibly in June. The dates of these are fixed by the solar Coptic calendar, which follows the agricultural seasons rather than by the hijri calendar. The middle festival was suppressed early in the nineteenth century. More recently the date of the main one, the mulid kabir, was moved to October to coincide with the end of the cotton harvest. It is sometimes shifted to avoid conflict with ‘ids or major festivals that follow the hijri calendar. During the Mamluke period the mulid was a major trade fair as well as a lively festival marked, according to one ‘alim, by fire walking, snake swallowing and the like, while another one wanted to ban it because men and women mixed together there. It declined somewhat during the Ottoman period.

The mulid kabir lasts for a week and is a carnival, commercial fair and religious event more or less rolled into one. As many as a million people may attend. The greatest activity is at night, with Qur’an recitations and dhikrs by various Sufi groups. Throughout people circumambulate Sayyid al-Badawi’s tomb and touch the wooden lattice (maqsura) that encloses it, seeking baraka. They also visit the tombs of other walis in Tanta, of which 37 are recognized. By the last two days of the festival the prayer hall of the mosque fills with people, mainly in family groups, praying, sleeping, eating, chatting. Many people sleep in the open during the mulid or in makeshift shelters. On a road leading out of town there are various amusements and merchants’ stalls. The road leads to a large field where a number of tents are set up by Sufi groups and other associations or agencies, where dhikrs are performed. On the last night (the “big night”) there is a government-sponsored programme as well as continuing dhikrs. According to Gilsenan the government put on a fireworks display in 1964. On Thursday afternoon there is a large procession called the “Procession of the Shinawiyya”, said to commemorate the fact that the leader of the Shinawi tariqa pledged allegiance to the successor of Ahmad al-Badawa. On the afternoon of Friday, the last event of mulid takes place, the Procession of the Khalifa, in which the various Sufi tariqas participate, followed by the Khalifa of Sayyid al-Badawi, the leader of the Badawiyya.

Ahmad al-Badawi’s tomb is located in a small room in the corner of the mosque that is visible to the viewer. One can see that the mosque is being extended toward the viewer. This picture was taken in October of 1977. When I visited the mosque again in 1999 it was much enlarged and the tomb was in a large hall.

A major centre of activity was this field outside of town. It was bordered by tents on three sides which were erected by various Sufi groups or family associations and offered hospitality. In the Sufi tents there are dhikrs and religious songs. The tent that is lit up belongs to the provincial arm of the Ministry of Awqaf (viz. Religious Affairs). When Michael Gilsenan visited the mulid in the 1964, at the height of the power and prestige of Abdel Nasser’s regime, the most prominent tent was that of the Arab Socialist Union.

The Tanta mulid has always been an agricultural fair. These stalls, located on the road between the Mulid field (above) and the town contain hummus (chickpeas or garbanzos). The hummus sold at the mulid is said to have baraka and people are expected to take some home with them.

One finds along the road things that we would associate with amusement parks, rides, sideshows, etc. These women are trying on what appear to be party hats.

Another evidently popular activity was this ritualized combat with staves called nabboots. The older man was obviously more skilled and always won while I was watching.

Soldiers marching at the beginning of the procession on Thursday. They are present to keep order, to make the government’s presence visible and to show the government’s support for the mulid.

Part of the procession on Thursday. As one can see, it was neither a silent nor a solemn affair.

Procession on the last day, with the Khalifa of Sayyid Ahmad, the leader of the Ahmadiyya tariqa. According to Gilsenan, in 1964 the government soldiers upstaged the Khalifa, but this was not so in 1977.

See under chapter 21 for material on the female saint Nur al-Sabah, under the title A FEMALE SUFI SAINT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY EGYPT

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Bayyumis

The lineage of the tariqa derives from Ali ibn Muhammad al-Bayyumi (c. 1696/7), who was born in a village in the Nile Delta region of Egypt. Having memorized the Qur’an at an early age and studied the standard scholarly disciplines, he was initiated into the Dimirdashi branch of the Khalwati tariqa while still young and then was initiated into the Halabiyya branch of the Ahmadiyya tariqa, a relatively upper-class and highly disciplined tariqa.  Soon he became famous as an ecstatic and attracted a large following. He lived in the Husayniyya, a largely lower class district just north of the old city walls of Cairo. He spent much time in seclusion but once a week he would conduct a noisy dhikr in which he would act in quite striking ways. He also encouraged his followers to help each other in times of need. Various karamat (wonders, miracles) were also ascribed to him. While his following was mainly among the common people he also had supporters among the elite, one of whom later became grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He had run-ins with some of the ‘ulama’, who wanted to ban his dhikrs, but he was protected by the Shaykh (rector) of al-Azhar. He is said to have lectured compellingly on scholarly topics and authored works on hadith and fiqh.

By the time of his death his following was recognized as a distinct tariqa branching off from the Ahmadiyya and generally referred to as Bayyumiyya Ahmadiyya. It continued to have a strong lower class following, including likely connections with the guilds of butchers and water carriers, but it also continued to have elite connections, counting at least one Shaykh of the Azhar as a member. One of its leaders came into conflict with the Mamluke rulers in 1766 and later 1790 (see below). Through the nineteenth century the shaykhs of the Bayyumi were recognized by the naqib al-ashraf, whom the government recognized as having authority over the Sufis, although in one case there was a dispute over success and the Shaykh of the Azhar supported one candidate. In the twentieth century they have been part of the official Sufi Council. Several descriptions of the dhikr of the tariqa as quite dramatic, almost violent, but my own observation did not corroborate this.

In 1977 I had the opportunity to attend a number of dhikr sessions held in the Cairo apartment of a doctor who was also in the army reserve. The sessions were attended by about 20 to 30 men and 15 women, who sat in a separate room. There was a range of ages with the average age perhaps 35 to 40. They were all middle or upper-middle class and apparently well educated; some were professionals. A book by their shaykh, who stands in the Bayyumi line, stresses that Sufi practice is consistent with the Shari‘a and the practice of the Prophet and places a strong emphasis on karamat. I was told that one member joined the
group because she believed that the prayers of the shaykh had helped doctors in operating on her. The element of mutual cooperation was also present. During the time I was in contact with them one of the members had problems with his job and another member devoted considerable time to advising and helping him.

The sessions themselves included recitations of the Qur’an and various Sufi writings and prayers, lessons given by the host, who was a khalifa of the shaykh, and the dhikr proper. This involved (for the men at least) sitting and then standing in a circle and reciting “La ilaha illa Allah”, then remaining standing and reciting “Allah”, then “Hu”, then “Hayy”, in each case repeatedly bowing and returning to the upright position in unison, reciting the formula or name with each movement. In each case the tempo increased until the recitation was ended with a formula of praise to Muhammad.  The atmosphere was quite intense but no one appeared to experience ecstasy. Later, however, one of my informants told me that he regularly experienced ecstasy but did not show it. This is the proper stance of the “sober” Sufi. The intensity diminished with further prayers and then refreshments and socializing, the women joining the men at this point.

The names chosen for recitation are based on a theory of seven levels of the self to which particular formulae or names of God are connected and which purify these levels when properly recited. They are as follows:

Level of the self	Name
Self that commands [to evil]	La ilaha illa Allah
The reproaching self	Allah
The inspired self	Hu[wa] (He)
The tranquil self	Haqq (True, Real)
The contented self	Hayy (Living)
The approved self	Qayyum (Eternal, Self-subsisting)
The perfected self	Qahhar (Subduer)

Both the names of God and the names of the stages, except for the last, are drawn from the Qur’an. I was told that the group I visited used only four names because of the limitation of time, but it may also be because most of the group were relative novices.

This group showed no signs of political interest or involvement but it is fair to say that they were part of what is often called the “resurgence” of Islam since about 1970. Though not political, it appears that politics forced them to terminate. On my next visit to Egypt, in 1984, after the assassination of president Anwar al-Sadat, I was told that, because the khalifa and host was in the military and because the government was suspicious of groups meeting in homes for religious reasons, he was told to stop holding the meetings.

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Al Jabarti on al-Bayyumi and the Bayyumiyya. © University of California Press

The following is an account of the life and career of Ali al-Bayyumi taken from the historical chronicle of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, entitled ‘Aja’ib al-Athar fi Tarajim wa-al-Akhbar [Historical and Biographical Marvels] and written in the early nineteenth century. In addition to being an important historical source it also illustrates the kind of person a Sufi wali was expected to be at that time. This and the following translation are made directly from the Arabic edition of Hasan M. Jawhar et al. (Cairo, l958–65), Vol. 2, pp. 338–41, also consulting the French translation, Merveilles Biographiques et Historiques, by Shaykh Mansour Bey et al. (Cairo, 1888–94), Vol. 3, pp. 60–64. I have not had the opportunity to check the background of all of the persons and places mentioned, titles of books, and names of military and administrative ranks, but some are indicated in the text and some in the introduction to the next section. These are not necessary to the understanding of the most important points. For a summary of Ali al-Bayyumi’s career based on this text see Winter, Michael (1992) Egyptian Society under Ottoman Rule, 1517–1798. London and New York: Routledge, p. 137.

Among those who died during this year, ll83 H. (1768–69 ce) was the imam, the wali, the pious believer, the ecstatic (majdhub), the productive scholar (‘alim), Shaykh ‘Ali ibn Hijazi ibn Muhammad al-Bayyumi, a follower of the Shafi'i madhhab and of the Khalwatiyyah and later the Ahmadiyyah tariqas.  He was born about the year 1108 (1695–96 ce).  He memorized the Qur'an at an early age and became a scholar, attending the lessons of the shaykhs of his time and studying Hadith under Umar ibn Abd al-Salam al-Tatawani. He was initiated into the Khalwatiyya by the Sayyid Husayn al-Dimirdashi al-‘Adili and followed its practices for some time. Then he was initiated into the Ahmadiyya by several people. In time he experienced ecstasy and people’s hearts inclined to him, their spirits were drawn to him, and they came to believe in him greatly. Many followed his tariqa and recited his dhikrs. He attracted a large number of followers and disciples. He lived in the Hussayniyya quarter and held dhikrs in the Mosque of Al-Zahir just outside the Hussayniyyah, where he was to be found regularly with his group as it was near his house. He was subject to supernatural experiences and strange states of ecstasy (ahwal), and wrote a number of books, among them a commentary on Al-Jami‘ al-Saghir, a commentary on Al-Hikam by Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Iskandari, a commentary on Al-Insan al-Kamil  by al-Jili (The Perfect Man, a Sufi work), a work on the local Sufi tariqas, especially on the Khalwatiyya Dimirdashiyya, written in 1144 (1730–31 ce), a commentary on the Arba‘in (Forty Hadith) of al-Nawawi, a treatise on the Shari'a punishments (hudud), and a commentary on the prayer-formula of the Ahmadiyya and on talismanic formulae. He spoke sublimely on Sufi practice and when he spoke he was eloquent, clear and dazzled his hearers. 

He wore the same clothing in winter and summer, a white gown and a white skullcap about which he wound a piece of red cloth as a turban.  He would leave his house only once a week to visit the Shrine of Husayn, riding a mule with his followers going before him and following him, proclaiming the unity of God and invoking His name. Often he would shut himself off for months meeting no one. He performed marvels (karamat). When he began to hold a dhikr every Tuesday in the courtyard of the Shrine of Husayn that lasted until after dawn, bringing his people as already mentioned, the ‘ulama’ arose against him and objected to the way they dirtied the mosque with their feet, since most of them went barefoot and raised their voices very loudly. Working through some of the military chiefs, they almost managed to stop him, but Shaykh al-Shubrawi (rector of the Azhar), who greatly loved the ecstatics, opposed them and helped him. He said to the Pasha and the chiefs, "This man is a great scholar and wali, and you must not interfere with him." At that time the Shaykh had him give classes at the Azhar Mosque, and he lectured on the Arba‘in of al-Nawawi in the Tibarsiyya section of the mosque. Most of the ‘ulama’ attended and were so impressed by his learning that they calmed down and the fire of discord was extinguished.    

Here is a passage from the end of his treatise on the Khalwatiyyah: “Among God's gifts and favours to me is that I saw Shaykh Dimirdash in heaven and he said to me, ‘Have no fear either in this world or the next.’  I also used to see the Prophet (may God grant him blessings and peace) while in seclusion during the mulid and he said to me one year, ‘Have no fear in this world or the next.’  I saw him say to Abu Bakr (may God be pleased with him), ‘Let us go and observe the zawiya  of Shaykh Dimirdash,’ and they both came and entered my cell and stood by me while I was reciting ‘Allah, Allah.’ An uncanny foreboding came over me at seeing the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), but I saw the great shaykh (Shaykh Dimirdash) standing by his tomb and saying to me, ‘Extend your hand to the prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, for he is here with me.’ I also had a vision, half-waking half-sleeping, in the cell (khalwa) of al-Kurdi, i.e. Shaykh Sharaf al-Din, who is buried in the Husayniyya, and I woke up and saw that light had filled the place. I rushed frantically out of the cell but some of those who were there stopped me, so I spent the rest of the night at the tomb of the Shaykh, but I was too terrified to go back into the cell. One time he smiled at me and gave me a signet ring and said to me, ‘By the One who has my soul in his hands, tomorrow what has passed between us will become known.’  Then Shaykh Kurdi took me and transported me to Mecca and made me see it with my own eyes. I entered where Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi was and the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace) was with him. Sayyid Ahmad passed a harsh judgement on me because I had delayed attending his mulid, while I appealed to the Prophet for aid. So then God helped me by the grace (baraka) of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), who said, ‘Go to al-Kurdi.’  He had twice previously dressed me in the red garment, once in Birket al-Hajj and once in his place in the mausoleum." He continues, "Once I saw myself outside of Medina and I said, ‘I will not enter until I know that the Prophet is pleased with me and has accepted me.’  Then he sent to me a man having a fan with which he fanned me and said, ‘You are accepted’.  I saw the Prophet say to me, ‘I would like to talk to you,’ and he made me stand before him and said to me, ‘Do you question the divine judgement?’  Then I woke up and felt the effects of that and did not know the reason.” 
On the margin of this treatise I also saw what I took to read, "I saw the prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) on Monday evening at the end of Ramadan in the year 1157 (1743–44) hastening along just outside the student quarters of al-Azhar, and I ran after him and said, ‘Do not pass me by, Oh Apostle of God,’ and we stopped in a wide open place and I came up to him and stood beside him and said to one who was present, ‘Look at his noble beard and count the white hairs in it.’”     

Here are some of his miracles (karamat):
I have heard from trustworthy sources that he used to convert brigands from their criminal ways so that they became his disciples and some even fully initiated Sufis. Sometimes he would chain them with a heavy iron chain to the pillars of the Al-Zahir Mosque, and sometimes he would put a collar around their necks and discipline them as he saw fit.  When he went riding they would follow him with weapons and staves. He had an awesome regal presence. When he took part in the dhikr at the Shrine of al-Husayn he would reach a state of excitement in which he would become as strong as a fierce wild beast, but when he sat down after the dhikr he would be extremely weak. Sometimes his face would appear to those present like that of a wild animal, sometimes like that of a calf, and sometimes like that of a gazelle.
Mustafa Pasha (the Ottoman governor), when he was in Egypt, believed in him and favoured him, and once when he visited him Shaykh al-Bayyumi said to him: “You will be called to the position of Grand Vizier at such-and-such a time,” and it happened as he said. When he became Grand Vizier he sent orders to Egypt and had Amir Uthman Agha, the representative of the Sublime Porte, build for the Shaykh the mosque that bears his name in the Husayniyya quarter, as well as a fountain, a primary-school (kuttab), and a domed mausoleum. When he died the prayers were said for him at the Azhar and there was a great funeral procession. He was buried in the tomb built for him in the domed shrine in the above-mentioned mosque.

*****A slightly modified version has been published in Renard, John (ed.) (1989) Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim Sources on Spirituality and Religious Life. Berkeley, etc.: University of California Press, pp. 141–44, 350–52.

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Al-Jabarti on Ahmad Salim al-Jazzar.

In this selection al-Jabarti describes a series of disturbances and events in Cairo that illustrate the interaction of the common people, Sufis, ‘ulama’ and rulers during the late Ottoman period when Egypt was effectively ruled by Mamlukes. The titles and names can be somewhat confusing but are not necessary to discern the basic course of events. The following information should help, however. Ahmad Salim al-Jazzar may have been the leader of the whole Bayyumi tariqa or just of one part of it. Al-Jazzar means “the butcher” and probably refers to his trade rather than being a family name or an epithet. Except in two places, shaykh refers to ‘ulama’ from al-Azhar. Shaykh al-‘Arusi was the rector of the Azhar (shaykh al Azhar). Shaykh al-Bakri was the leader of the Bakriyya tariqa and of the leading Sufi family at the time. The wâli here is the police chief. Agha is the title of a commander of a military unit. Isma’il Bey was the most powerful of the various Mamluke commanders in Egypt at the time. For brief descriptions of these events see Winter, Egyptian Society under Ottoman Rule, p. 125.

On the 11th of Muharram, 1205 (20 Sept. 1790) Ahmad Agha, the wâli, committed a number of offences against the people of the Husayniyya quarter. He seized many of the men, imprisoning, beating and taking money from them, and even looted some of the houses. On Friday, the 22nd of the month, he sent his men to get Ahmad Salim al-Jazzar, a shaykh of the Bayyumiyya and a man with considerable influence in that area. They wanted to arrest him but his followers rose up in passionate rage against the followers of the wâli and kept them from him. Then a large number of people from that district and others joined them and they closed the markets and the shops. They went to the Azhar Mosque beating drums and closed the gates of the mosque and climbed the minarets shouting, screaming and beating the drums, and forced the classes to stop. Then Shaykh al-‘Arusi said to them, "I will go right now to Isma'il Bey (leader of the Mamlukes) and tell him to dismiss the wâli.” Thus he got them to leave. He then went but Isma'il Bey made the excuse that the wâli was not one of his retainers but one of the retainers of Hasan Bey al-Jadawi. He ordered some of his followers to go to Hasan Bey and inform him of the demonstration and the demands of the people and the shaykhs for the dismissal of the wâli, but Hasan refused saying, "If I were to dismiss my retainer, the wâli, Isma'il would have to dismiss the agha who is his retainer, and also dismiss Radwan Katkhoda al-Majnun (the “crazy one”) and Mustafa Kashif from their positions and expel the army of al-Qalyunji and al-Arna’ud.”  They exchanged several messages about this matter. Then Hasan Bey rode out to the ‘Adiliyyah district, apparently angry. And Ahmad Agha the wâli rode with a large group straight through the city, infuriating the people, so that a number of them gathered together as he passed and several skirmishes took place; a group of them were wounded and two people were killed. Then the shaykhs rode to the house of Muhammad Effendi al-Bakri; Isma'il Bey appeared there and placated them and promised to dismiss the wâli. The wâli passed by the house of Shaykh al-Bakri at that moment when a lot of the people were gathered there but he threatened them with the sword and broke up their gathering. Thus he got away from them and went his way. Then the situation got worse and there was considerable tumult. Gangs went about ordering shops to close and many of them gathered at the Azhar. This matter continued until Tuesday, the 3rd of Safar (the following month). Then Isma'il Bey and the Amirs went up the Citadel (seat of the Ottoman governor) and agreed to dismiss both the agha and the wâli. They gave them other positions and appointed others in their place, the agha from Isma'il Bey's side and the wâli from Hasan Bey’s side. The new wâli went down from the council session to the Azhar and met the shaykhs present there and placated them. Then he rode to his house and the gathering dispersed, feeling that their power and their status had been raised (lit.: feeling as if their hands had been raised and he who had been riding a mule now rode a horse).
(‘Aja'ib, Vol. 4, pp. 128–29; Merveilles, Vol. 5, pp. 85–86)

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Shaykh Nazim Haqqani (of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani tariq, mentioned of p. 190, died in May of 2014.

Chapter 13: A philosopher, a scholar-mystic and a reformer

For a further account of Ibn Sina’s life and career see:

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Avicenna.html.

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Ibn Sina’s universe:

The following diagram and table illustrate the genesis of intelligences from the Necessary Existent in Ibn Sina’s cosmology as described on p. 197 of Introducing Islam.

The Ptolmaic picture of the universe is illustrated below. It has been described as a golden apple, rotten at the core, because the area beyond the sphere of the moon is thought to be harmonious and indestructible, while the area inside the sphere of the moon (where we live!) is the scene of decay and corruption.

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Outline of Al-Ghazali's Ihya' ‘Ulum al-Din (Quickening the Sciences of Religion)

 

Outline and available translations 

(to be updated in the future)

First Quarter: Acts of Worship (‘Ibadat)

 1. The Book of Knowledge. (Kitab al-‘ilm)

The Book of Knowledge, N. A. Faris, trans. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1974 (1962).

 2. The Book of the Foundations of the Articles of Faith. (Kitab qawa‘id al-‘aqa'id)

The Foundations of the Articles of Faith, N. A. Faris, trans. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1974.

"Al-Ghazali's Tract on Dogmatic Theology", edited, translated, annotated and introduced by A. L. Tibawi, Islamic Quarterly 9 (1965): 65–122. 

 3. The Book of Purification. (Kitab al-tahara)

The Mysteries of Purity, N. A. Faris, trans. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1974.

 4. The Book of the Mysteries of Salah and Its Requirements. (Kitab asrar al-salah wa-muhimmatiha)

Worship in Islam, trans. with commentary by Edwin Elliot Calverly. Mysore City: Wesleyan Mission Press, 1925.

 5. The Book of the Mysteries of Zakah. (Kitab asrar al-zakah)

The Mysteries of Almsgiving, N. A. Faris, trans. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1966.

 6. The Book of the Mysteries of Fasting. (Kitab asrar al-sawm)

The Mysteries of Fasting, N. A. Faris, trans. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1974 (1968).

 7. The Book of the Mysteries of the Hajj. (Kitab asrar al-hajj)

 8. The Book of the Rules for Reciting the Qur'an. (Kitab asrar tilawat al-qur'an)

Quasem, M. A., The Recitation and Interpretation of the Qur'an: Al-Ghazali's Theory.  Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaysia Press, 1979.

 9. The Book of Invocations and Prayers. (Kitab al-adhkar wa al-da‘wat)

Al-Ghazzali: Invocations & Supplications, trans. K. Nakamura. Revised Ed.  Cambridge: Islamic Text Society. 1990. (BP 184.3 .G411i) (Earlier ed. Nakamura, K., Ghazali on Prayer. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1973.)

10. The Book of Prayers at Set Times and Night Vigils. (Kitab tartib al-awrad wa-tafsil ihya' al-layl)

Second Quarter: Customs (‘Adat)

11. The Book of the Rules on Eating. (Kitab adab al-akl)

12. The Book of the Rules on Marriage. (Kitab adab al-nikah)

13. The Book of the Rules on Earning a Living. (Kitab adab al-kasb wa al-ma‘ash)

14. The Book of the Permitted and the Forbidden. (Kitab al-halal wa al-haram)

15. The Book of the Rules on Companionship and Brotherhood. (Kitab adab al-ulfah wa al-ukhwah)

On the Duties of Brotherhood, Muhtar Holland, trans. Essex: Anchor Press, Ltd., 1975. 

16. The Book of the Rules on Seclusion. (Kitab adab al-‘uzlah)

17. The Book of the Rules on Travelling. (Kitab adab al-safar)

18. The Book of the Rules on Music and Ecstasy. (Kitab adab al-sama‘ wa al-wajd)

MacDonald, D. B., "Emotional Religion in Islam as Affected by Music and Singing, Translation of the Ihya' ‘Ulum ad-Din of Al-Ghazali", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1901, pp. 195–252, 705–48; 1902, pp. 1–28.

19. The Book of Commanding Good Conduct and Forbidding Evil Conduct. (Kitab al-amr bi-al-ma‘ruf wa al-nahy ‘an al-munkar)

20. The Book of the Proper Life-Style as Manifested by the Prophet. (Kitab adab al-ma‘ishah wa-akhlaq al-nubuwwah)

Book XX of Al-Ghazali's Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din, L. Zolondek, trans.  Leiden: Brill, 1963. 

Third Quarter: Deadly Sins (al-muhlikat)

21. The Book of the Explanation of the Marvels of the Heart. (Kitab sharh ‘aja'ib al-qalb)

Partly translated in McCarthy, Freedom and Fulfilment, Appendix V.

There is a summary and discussion in D. B. MacDonald (1965 [1909]) The Religious Life and Attitude in Islam. Beirut: Khayats, chs 8–10.

22. The Book of Training the Self, Disciplining Character, and Treating the Sicknesses of the Heart. (Kitab riyadat al-nafs wa-tahdhib al-akhlaq wa-mu‘alijat amrad al-qalb)

23. The Book of Breaking the Two Appetities (viz. Food and Sex). (Kitab kasr al-shahwatayn)

24. The Book of the Curse of the Tongue. (Kitab afat al-lisan)

25. The Book of Condemnation of Anger, Malice and Envy. (Kitab dhamm al-ghadab wa-al-hiqd wa-al-hasad)

26. The Book of Condemnation of the World. (Kitab dhamm al-dunya)

27. The Book of Condemnation of Avarice and Wealth. (Kitab dhamm al-bukhl wa-dhamm hubb al-mal)

28. The Book of Condemnation of Pomp and Hypocrisy. (Kitab dhamm al-jah wa-al-riya')

29. The Book of Condemnation of Pride and Self-Praise. (Kitab dhamm al-kibr wa al-‘ujb)  

30. The Book of Condemnation of Conceit. (Kitab dhamm al-ghurur)

Fourth Quarter: Path to Salvation.  (Al-Munjiyat)

31. The Book of Repentance. (Kitab al-tawbah)

32. The Book of Patience and Gratitude. (Kitab al-sabr wa-l-shukr)

33. The Book of Fear and Hope. (Kitab al-khawf wa-l-raja')

Al-Ghazali's Book of Fear and Hope, William McKane, trans., Leiden: Brill, 1962.

34. The Book of Poverty and Self-Denial. (Kitab al-faqr wa-l-zuhd)

35. The Book of Tawhid and Trust. (Kitab al-tawhid wa-l-tawakkul)

36. The Book of Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment. (Kitab al-mahabbah wa-l-shawq wa-l-uns wa-l-rida)

The section on love is partly translated in Williams, John  A. (1963) Islam. New York: Washington Square Press, Ch. Five, section 5, first selection.

The section on love is summarized and analyzed in terms of its Greek sources in Simon van den Bergh, Simon (1956) "The 'Love of God' in Ghazali's Vivification of Theology", Journal of Semitic Studies, 1.4 (Oct.).

37. The Book of Resolve, Sincerity and Truthfulness. (Kitab al-niyyah wa-l-ikhlas wa-l-sidq)

38. The Book of Self-Examination and Self-Accounting. (Kitab al-muraqabah wa-l-muhasaba)

39. The Book of Meditation. (Kitab al-tafakkur)

40. The Book of Recollection of Death and What Follows It. (Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa-ma ba‘dahu)

The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife, trans. T. J. Winter. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1989.

At http://ghazali.org/site/ihya.htm a list of all of the books of the Ihya’ may be found along with links to many of  them.

Book 1: Book of Knowledge, English Translation by N. A. Faris
Book 3: Mysteries of Purity, English Translation by N. A. Faris
Book 4: Mysteries of Worship. English translation by E. E. Caverley
Book 5: Mysteries of Zakat (Charity) English Translation by N. A. Faris
Book 6: Mysteries of Fasting. English translation by N. A. Faris
Book 9: On Invocations and Supplications. English translation by K. Nakamura (ITS description).

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Chapter 14 Literature and Arts

When dealing with people of other times and cultures we almost inevitably impose our categories on them. Relevant to this chapter, there is no word in pre-modern Arabic to my knowledge that corresponds to our word and concept “art”. The word used in modern Arabic, fann, meant (and often still means) something like “craft” or “field of work” (as, indeed, “art” did and sometimes does in English). The modern word for “literature”, adab, referred earlier to a certain kind of cultivated lifestyle and the writing connected with it (Introducing Islam, p. 217). Popular literature and much religious literature would not have been called adab. Bearing this in mind can help us to avoid some misinterpretations.

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Omar Khayyam

There is considerable difference of opinion among scholars about which of the quatrains attributed to Khayyam are actually his, since they appear first in scattered references about a half century after his death and later in anthologies and they increase in number as time goes on. In fact, what goes under the name of Khayyam is a fairly long and growing tradition, and Fitzgerald’s versions (there were several over some 20 years) represent often a very free translation for Victorian tastes.

The first version of “A book of verse . . .” quoted in Introducing Islam is Fitzgerald’s latest version.

The second is in Avery and Heath-Stubbs and as is thought genuine by the modern Iranian scholar Sadeq Hedayat.

Three somewhat different versions are as follows;

If chance supplied a loaf of white bread

Two casks of wine and a leg of mutton,

In the corner of a garden with a tulip-cheeked girl

There’d be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo.

(Kritzek, 167, also in Avery and Heath Stubbs, ##, p. 112)

A picnic with a loaf of wheaten bread

A jar of wine, a roasted leg of lamb,

A lovely maid beside me in the garden,

This is a life no sultan can enjoy. “

(In Dashti, 204, considered “Khayyam-like”)

If hand should give of the pith of the wheat a loaf,

And of wine a two-maunder jug, of sheep a thigh,

With a little sweetheart seated in a desolation,

a pleasure it is that is not the attainment of any sultan.  

(Kritzek, 167, original source not given.)

References

Kritzek, J. (ed.) (1964) Anthology of Islamic Literature. New York: New American Library. (Contains a wide sampling of pre-modern Islamic poetry and prose, usually a good introduction to the author’s excerpts.)

Khayyam (1979) Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. Robert Avery and John Heath-Stubbs. London: A. Lane. (See Introducing Islam.)

Kritzek, J. (ed.) (1964) Anthology of Islamic Literature. New York: New American Library. (See Introducing Islam.)

Dashti, Ali (1971) In Search of Omar Khayyam, translated from the Persian by L. P. Elwell-Sutton. London: Allen & Unwin. (By a highly respected Iranian scholar; his biography of Muhammad is discussed briefly in chapter six of Introducing Islam.)

[Decker] Fitzgerald, Edward (1997) Rubáiyyát of Omar Khayyám, A Critical Edition, ed. Christopher Decker. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1997. (In-depth study of the various versions of Fitzgeralds Rubáiyyát.)

[Graves] The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam, a new translation with critical commentaries by Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah. London: Cassell, 1967 (Presents Khayyam as a mystic, a view not generally accepted by scholars.)

[Bibliography is given here for user’s convenience; items not in Introducing Islam also appear under Further Reading on the website.]

Chapter 15: Modern Challenges: Imperialism and Response

Modernism:

The following from a twentieth-century Egyptian politician and statesman is a good example of Islamic modernism:

The difference between Islam and most other religions is that it did not content itself with merely establishing acts of worship and abandon the needs of society to a Caesar or any form of temporal governing body. Rather, Islam established ways of conduct, relationships, and rights and obligations for the individual vis-à-vis members of his family and the nation and for the nation vis-à-vis other nations. The reform of society was the main target of Islam. . . .

Upon perusal of the Holy Book (Qur'an) and the Sunna, and upon examination of Islamic history during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafa' al-Rashidun), we find that Islam is definite and conclusive on all general principles* suitable for all times, places and peoples. When it comes to implementing these principles, one can see clearly the flexibility of the Islamic Shari‘ah and the authority it gives to our reason and our effort (ijtihad). The Shari‘a in effect upholds the guidance given by the Prophet when he said, "you know best about your earthly matters." Thus there is a wide scope for human opinion and it is up to reason and experience to distinguish correct from incorrect action, to show the road to the general welfare (ma?la?a) and to steer clear of harm.

Abd al-Rahman 'Azzam (1964) The Eternal Message of Muhammad, English translation by Caesar E. Farah. New York: New American Library, pp. 82, 105 (translation  of second paragraph modified).

*The general principles include justice, freedom, brotherhood of man, the value of work, religious tolerance, and the redistribution of excess wealth (Ibid., pp. 54ff, 90–92, 101–2)

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Islamism

This statement comes from Abul ‘Ala’ Mawdudi, founder of the Jama‘at-i Islami in India/Pakistan and probably the most influential Islamist leader and thinker.

"The entire Muslim population runs the state in accordance with the Book of God and the practice of His Prophet. If I were permitted to coin a new term, I would describe this system of government as a ‘theo-democracy’, that is to say a divine democratic government, because under it the Muslims have been given a limited popular sovereignty under the suzerainty of God. The executive under this system of government is constituted by the general will of the Muslims who have also the right to depose it. All administrative matters and all questions about which no explicit injunction is to be found in the Shari‘ah are settled by the consensus of opinion among the Muslims. Every Muslim who is capable and qualified to give a sound opinion on matters of Islamic law, is entitled to interpret the law of God when such interpretation becomes necessary. In this sense the Islamic polity is a democracy. But as has been explained above, it is a theocracy in the sense that where an explicit command of God or His Prophet already exists, no Muslim leader or legislature, or any religious scholar can form an independent judgement, not even all the Muslims of the world put together, have any right to make the least alteration in it.” (The Islamic Law and Constitution, revised edition. Lahore: Islamic Publications, 1960, reprint 1975, translated by Khurshid Ahmad, pp. 132–33)

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Chapter 16 Turkey: Secularist Reform

Modernization  and Population

“The ‘revolution of rising expectations’ we celebrated so confidently fifteen years ago has, in many places, become a ‘revolution of rising frustrations.’ Modernization, it now appears, is harder than one supposed.” (Lerner, Daniel [1964] The Passing of Traditional Society, New York: Free Press, p. vii.)

One reason for this, Lerner mentions, is the population explosion in most developing countries, which has continued well past the time of his writing, and which needs to be kept in view in the study of all social phenomena, including religion. The “revolution of rising frustrations” has undoubtedly contributed to the Islamic “resurgence” of recent decades. Therefore, I am providing here population statistics for Turkey and, in the appropriate places, Egypt, Iran and Indonesia.

	Population of Turkey in millions
1927	13.6
1980	44.7
1990	56.5
2012	74.0

Source: World Bank,http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.

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Some statements of Atatürk

“How happy is the one who can say, ‘I am a Turk.’”

“In life the truest guide (mürsit) is science.”

“Our aim is to establish a modern, therefore a Western state in Turkey.”

•  
• (Toprak, B. [1981] Islam and Political Development in Turkey,  Leiden: Brill, p. 144)

It was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on our heads as a sign of ignorance, of fanaticism, of hatred to progress and civilization, and to adopt in its place the hat, the customary headdress of the whole civilized world, thus showing, among other things, that no difference existed in the manner of thought between the Turkish nation and the whole family of civilized mankind.

(McNeil, W. H. and Waldmann, M. R. (eds) [1973] The Islamic World. New York, etc.: Oxford University Press, p. 446)

I flatly refuse to believe that today, in the luminous presence of science, knowledge and civilization in all its aspects, there exist, in the civilized community of Turkey, men so primitive as to seek their material and moral well-being from the guidance of one or another shaikh. Gentlemen, you and the whole nation must know, and know well, that the Republic of Turkey cannot be the land of shaikhs, dervishes, disciples and lay brothers. The straightest, truest tariqa is the way (tariqa) of civilization. To be a man, it is enough to do what civilization requires. The heads of the brotherhoods will understand this truth that I have uttered in all its clarity, and will of their own accord at once close their convents, and accept the fact that their disciples have come of age.

(Mortimer, Edward [1982] Faith and Power.  The Politics of Islam. London: Faber & Faber, p. 141)

A different viewpoint:

“Fear not; how can this faith of a people be smothered by that monster called ‘Civilization’ which has but one tooth left in its jaw.”

Mehmet Akif (Mortimer, Faith and Power, p. 134)

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Selections from the Turkish Constitution of 1982

(the most recent constitution)

ARTICLE 2 – The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law, mindful of the concepts of public peace, national solidarity and justice, respecting human rights, loyal to the nationalism of Atatürk, and based on the fundamental principles set forth in the Preamble (which speaks of the "eternal Turkish nation" and the "sacred Turkish state", "the absolute supremacy of the national will" and "no interjection of the sacred tenets of religion into state affairs and politics).

ARTICLE 6 – Sovereignty is vested in the Turkish Nation without reservation and condition.

ARTICLE 10 – All individuals are equal without any discrimination before the law, irrespective of language, race, colour, gender, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion and sect, or any such consideration.

ARTICLE 24 – Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religious belief, and conviction... Education and instruction in religion and ethics shall be conducted under state supervision and control....

(from Blaustein and Flanz, Constitutions of the Countries of the World, Vol. XVI. A fuller and I think later version in a different translation may be found at: http://www.hri.org/docs/turkey)

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Sufi Tomb and Modern Strictures.

 

Tomb of Shihab al-Din (Sehabeddin) Sivasi (d. 1378) and mosque, Salçuk, Turkey. The plaque describes him as a scholar but he also must have been a Sufi, in view of the practices prohibited by the sign beside the door. This image is also in the Image Bank.

The sign beside the door of Shihab al-Din’s tomb reads roughly as follows:

Attention, visitors. According to Islam, your religion, at tombs and graves:

• Votive offerings are not to be presented.
• Animals are not to be slaughtered as sacrifices.
• Candles are not to be lit.
• Strips of cloth are not to be fastened.
• Coins not to be placed.
• One is not to bow as one enters.
• Money is not to be thrown on or in.
• People are not to leave food around.
• One should not rub one's hand and face.
• Miraculous cures should not be expected from tombs and graves.
• One should not circumambulate tombs or graves.
• One should not lie down or sleep inside a tomb.

These and similar things are heresies and superstitions.

They have been definitively forbidden.

Department of Religious Affairs.

One suspects that this is a good list of what has actually been practiced.

Chapter 17: Egypt: Between Secularism and Islamism

Population of Egypt (Approximate figures)

1900	10 million
1950	20 million
1977	40 million
1985	50 million
2012	80.7 million

 

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL

Food production has not kept up with this growth.

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Al-Jabarti on the French occupation

Some comments by the scholar ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti on the French occupation of Cairo in 1789. (‘Aja’ib al-athar fi al-tarajim wa al-akhbar (Historical and Biographical Marvels), Lajnat Bayan al-‘Arabi, 1970, my translation of the first passage, sources of others as indicated. There are two French translations: Journal d'un notable du Caire durant l'expedition française, 1798–1801, traduit et annoté par Joseph Cuoq.  Paris: A. Michel, 1979, and Al-Jabarti, Merveilles Biographiques et Historiques, trans. Shaykh Mansour Bey et al., Cairo, Imprimerie National, 1888–94). Other passages from this work are quoted in the material for Chapter 12, Sufism.

Al-Jabarti on the French incursion:

The year 1213 (1798–99): It was the first of many years of great battles and momentous events, of calamitous occurrences and terrifying calamities, of multiplying evils and successive catastrophes, of trial after trial and times out of joint, of society inverted and its foundations overturned, of horrors spouting forth and conditions confused, of order corrupted and ruin taking over, of destruction everywhere and disasters unremitting.  "And your Lord would not have destroyed the cities unjustly had their inhabitants been acting righteously."  (Qur’an 11:117) (‘Aja’ib al-athar, Vol ?, p. 248)

Description of an uprising against the French.

(There were two major popular uprisings against the French, one described in the following passage.)

Many of the mob united and proclaimed jihad and brought their hidden weapons of war and resistance . . . they were joined by the ?asharat  (lit. insects) of the Husayniyya [quarter] and the zu‘r (roughly, scoundrels) of the alleys of the Baraniyya [quarter].  They were shouting “God save Islam”.  They proceeded to the house of judges and were followed by another thousand or more like them . . . when the French knew of their gathering a French leader with his troops proceeded to their popular quarters but the zu‘r were fortified behind barricades and they killed several soldiers and prevented them from entering their quarters . . . .  The French shelled the quarters that surrounded al-Azhar and directed their fire at the mosques of al-Azhar. The people of the quarters were alarmed and ran away since they had not seen such missiles before.  As for the people of the Husayniyya and the ‘Atuf, they went on fighting until their gun powder was exhausted while the French fired constantly.   Finally, having exhausted their arms and unable to continue, they left their position to the French.  (October, 1798. Messiri, Sawsan el- [1978] Ibn al-Balad: A Concept of Egyptian Identity. Leiden: Brill, p. 29, wording modified.)

Comments on the French scholars who accompanied the military expedition:

The French installed in this latter house [of one of the Mamlukes] a large library . . . open every day from ten o’clock. . .  If a Muslim wished to come in to visit the place he was not in the least prevented from doing so; on the contrary, he was warmly received. The French especially enjoyed it when the Muslim visitor appeared to be interested in the sciences. . . . I had occasion to visit this library quite a few times. I saw there, among other things, a large volume on the history of our Prophet (may God bless him). His holy visage was represented there as exactly as the knowledge of the author permitted. He was standing, looking up worshipfully toward the heavens, and holding in his right hand a sword and in his left hand a book . . . .

“Some of [the French scholars] had also learned verses of the Qur’an. In short, they were very great scholars and loved the sciences, especially mathematics and philology. They applied themselves day and night to learning the Arabic language and conversation.” (November 1798, Kritzek, James [ed.] [1970] Modern Islamic Literature from 1800 to the Present. New York: NAL, pp. 19–20)

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‘Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq (1888–1966), Islam and the Bases of Government

(See Introducing Islam, pp.275–76)

Synopsis of the argument.

1. The caliphate (khilafa) is not necessary:
   1. Not clearly stipulated in the Qur'an.
   2. Not clearly stipulated in the Sunna of the Prophet.
   3. No binding ijma’
      1. the ijma’ was compelled, thus it does not have moral and religious authority.
      2. the ijma’ was never unanimous – groups such as the Khawarij and certain Mu'tazilis never accepted it.
   4. Is it necessary for the good of the community (ma?la?a)?
      1. This requires some government, but not a particular form of government.
      2. In practice the caliphate was oppressive and its loss has not harmed religion.
2. The prophet's mission was in fact religious, not political.
   1. If the prophet had a government, why do we know so little about it?
      1. Prophet clearly had elements of a government: e.g. jihad, governors, judges, taxes, etc.
      2. But these were ad hoc; there is no evidence of a system.
   2. Was organizing a government part of his mission?
      1. A prophet has primacy.
      2. But this is not the same as governing authority (e.g. Jesus).
      3. It must be greater than governing authority, since it must rule over souls as well as bodies.
      4. It must be spiritual authority; and spiritual authority is other than material authority.
      5. Evidence in the Qur'an and the Sirah (traditional biography of Muhammad) that Muhammad rejected "kingship".
      6. Islam was sent to unify the whole human race; this is possible religiously but not politically.
      7. Those actions of the Prophet that appear to be actions of state were necessary evils to sustain his preaching.
   3. As the Ridda (Apostasy) wars show:
      1. Muhammad gave a spiritual, not a political unity; the Arabs were still divided into various "states".
      2. Some of the people of the Ridda were sincere Muslims.
   4. It would be blasphemy to say that Muhammad died without completing his mission, but if the caliphate had been part of his mission he would not have left it unsettled.
   5. Islam gave the Arabs a national unity and it was natural for them to erect on this a political empire.
   6. Reasons why Abu Bakr's caliphate was mistakenly thought to be religious.

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   Taha Hussein

   Selections from The Future of Culture in Egypt (Mustaqbal al-thaqafa fi Mi?r), by Taha Hussein, 1938. One of the most explicit statements in favour of Westernization by a major literary figure. (Hussein, Taha [1975] The Future of Culture in Egypt, trans. S. Glazer. New York: Octagon; translation modified.) Another translation from Taha Hussein is found in the material for Chapter 6.

   Islam arose and spread over the world. Egypt was receptive and hastened at top speed to adopt it as her religion and to make the Arabic of Islam her language. Did that obliterate her original mentality? Did that make her an Eastern nation in the present meaning of the term?  Not at all!  Europe did not become Eastern nor did the nature of the European mind change because Christianity, which originated in the East, flooded Europe and absorbed the other religions.  If modern European philosophers and thinkers deem Christianity to be an element of the European mind, they must explain what distinguishes Christianity from Islam; for both were born in the geographical East, both issued from one noble source and were inspired by the one God in whom Easterners and Westerners alike believe. . . .

   No, there are no intellectual or cultural differences to be found among the peoples who grew up around the Mediterranean and were influenced by it. Purely political and economic circumstances made the inhabitants of one shore prevail against those of the other. The same factors led them to treat each other now with friendliness, now with enmity.

   We Egyptians must not assume the existence of intellectual differences, weak or strong, between the Europeans and ourselves or infer that the East mentioned by Kipling in his famous verse "East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" applies to us or our country. Isma‘il's statement that Egypt is a part of Europe should not be regarded as some kind of boast or exaggeration, since our country has always been a part of Europe as far as intellectual and cultural life is concerned, in all its forms and branches . . . .

   The dominant and undeniable fact of our times is that day by day we are drawing closer to Europe and becoming an integral part of her, literally and figuratively. This process would be much more difficult than it is if the Egyptian mind were basically different from the European.

   This is not all. Since the World War we have taken such decisive steps forward that any attempt to retrace them or abrogate the rights won would, I am certain, be violently resisted by many Egyptians. Which one of us is willing to see Egypt retreat from the progress she has made toward democracy, or who would go back to a system that did not center about a constitutional representative government? . . . .

   In order to become equal partners in civilization with the Europeans, we must literally and forthrightly do everything that they do; we must share with them the present civilization, with all its pleasant and unpleasant sides, and not content ourselves with words or mere gestures.  Whoever advises any other course of action is either a deceiver or is himself deceived.  Strangely enough we imitate the West in our everyday lives, yet hypocritically deny the fact in our words. lf we really detest European life, what is to hinder us from rejecting it completely? And if we genuinely respect the Europeans, as we certainly seem to do by our wholesale adoption of their practices, why do we not reconcile our words with our actions? Hypocrisy ill becomes those who are proud and anxious to overcome their defects. . . .

   We want to be like the European nations in military power in order to repel the attack of any aggressor and to be able to say to our English friends: “Thank you, you may go; for we can now defend the Canal.” Who wants the end must want the means; who wants power must want the elements constituting it; who wants a strong European-type army must want European training. . . .

   Further, we want scientific, artistic, and literary independence so that we may be equals, not slaves of the Europeans in these aspects of life too. Desiring this intellectual and concomitant psychological independence, we naturally must want the means, namely, studying, feeling, judging, working, and organizing our lives the way they do.

   We want, finally, to be free in our country, free from both foreign pressure and domestic inequity and oppression. The former requires strength, the latter democracy. If we aim at these ends we must adopt the means to acquire them. These are the means by which the European and American countries acquired their independence and their democratic government. The genuineness of Egypt's perennial desire for independence is attested to by the fact that our national personality was never absorbed into any one of the numerous races that attacked us. On the contrary, we managed to keep this personality intact from earliest times. Now that we have succeeded in restoring the honor and self-respect that come with independence, it is our plain duty to protect what we have won. . . .

   Our good people should remember that as soon as Islam crossed the Arabian frontiers it came into contact with foreign civilizations whose relationship to the Muslims and Arabs at that time was the same as Europe's is to us now. The Muslim Arabs were not deterred by certain unpleasant features from adopting the motive-forces of the non-Muslim Persian and Byzantine Greek civilizations. Incorporating these two into their ancient heritage, they produced the glorious Islamic culture of the Umayyads and Abbassids which our conservatives are seeking to recreate. . . .

   Europe today resembles the Umayyad and Abbasid Near East in the richness of its civilization which, like any human creation, possesses good and bad aspects.  Our religious life will not suffer from contact with the European civilization any more than it suffered when we took over the Persian and Byzantine civilizations.

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   Hasan al-Banna

   Selections from the speeches and writings of Hasan al-Banna, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brothers (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun). From Sharabi, Hisham B. [1966] Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, pp. 108–10.

   We believe that the doctrines and teachings of Islam are all-comprehensive and govern the affairs of men in this world and the next. Those who believe that these doctrines and teachings apply only to spiritual matters and to religious worship are mistaken . . . .

         . . . the Muslim Brothers will use physical force only when nothing else will do, and then only when they are convinced they have perfected their faith and unity. [But] when they [decide to] use force they will be honorable and frank and will give advance warning . . . .

   The Muslim Brothers do not demand power for themselves; if they find anyone capable of carrying this burden and of fulfilling the trust of government in accordance with a program based on Islam and the Qur’an, then they will be his soldiers, supporters, and helpers. But if they do not find such a man, then power is included in their program and they would strive to seize it from the hands of any government that does not fulfil Allah’s commands. . . .

   “The Arabs are the core and guardians of Islam . .  . Arab unity is an essential prerequisite for the restoration of Islam’s glory . . .

   As such, Islam . . . considers all Muslims as one single nation and the Islamic homeland as one single territory. . .

   The Muslim Brothers owe respect to their own particular nationalism, Egyptian nationalism, which constitutes the primary basis of the revival they seek. After that, they support Arab unity, which constitutes the second link in the movement of revival; and finally they strive for the Islamic League, which constitutes the perfect enclosure for the larger Islamic homeland.

   For some bibliographical information on Hasan al-Banna see:

   http://www.answers.com/topic/hassan-al-banna.

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   The Authenticity of Arab Nationalism

   From a book published in 1960 by Ibrahim Jum‘a, a professor at Cairo University. From Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East, ed. Kemal H. Karpat. London: Pall Mall Press, 1968, pp. 48–50.

   Arab nationalism was an existing reality before the emergence of Islam. This nationalism forcefully manifested itself through a common Arab sentiment and a defensive movement opposing the invasion of the Arabian Peninsula by the Ethiopians under “Abraha,” fifteen years before the rise of Islam. . .

   Arab nationalism achieved its completed form with the creation of the Arab state by Islam. In this state  . . . the Arabs were molded into one Arab nation with one national state. The Arab spirit then invaded all the lands occupied by the Persians and Byzantines Arabizing their people and engulfing their national spirit within its own. . .

   The Arabs undertook a moral invasion of these lands. . . . The Arabs had left their homeland armed with a religious message and a body of doctrines centering around justice, truth, brotherhood, freedom and peace. . .  

   . . . the genuine Arab code of morality graced and systematized by a divine message, restored dignity to mankind. It converted injustice into justice, fear into tranquillity, war into peace, and slavery into freedom. It reconciled the followers of Muhammad to the followers of Christ, declared all men free and equal, and established democracy, socialism, and a cooperative spirit long before these systems of life had been regulated and codified.

   Arab nationalism derives its existence from the very depths of the Arab spirit and the nature of Arab life. It is furthermore, a body of truths that transcend all discussion and argument… 

   Arab nationalism is a comprehensive, deeply ingrained faith which manifested itself in a past that the Arabs once lived through and want to relive, thus harking back to their true origin.

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   Islamist Anti-nationalism

   Muhammad al-Ghazali (1917–96) was a well-known Islamist and for a time member of the Muslim Brothers. This passage is quoted from a 1953 book of his mentioned in Browers, Michelle (2007) “The Egyptian movement for change: Intellectual antecedents and generational conflicts”, Contemporary Islam 1 (2007): 70–71 (wording modified).

   “Nationalism has only lost for us our Islamic unity and enabled Christians and the Zionist imperialism to rob us of our most sacred rights. . . .The truth is that the growth of nationalism, racism and infidel patriotism is a loss of Islamic faith as well as a loss of Islamic rule. The revival of such evil fanaticism is a plot against God’s religion – a return to the first Jahiliyya with all its injustice and crime.”

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   Abdel Nasser

   Quotations from Abdel Nasser on Islam and religion. From: Smith, D. E. (ed.) (1971) Religion and Political Modernization. New York: Free Press, pp. 270–71 and 275.

   Mohammad, God’s blessing and peace be on him, gave us the example of social justice, progress and development, and thus Islam was able in these early days to defeat the strongest nations . . . and spread to all corners of the earth because it was the religion of righteousness, freedom, justice and equality. [Our enemies] say that socialism is infidelity.  But is socialism really what they describe by this term?  What they describe applies to raising slaves, hoarding money and usurping the people’s wealth.  This is infidelity and this is against religion and Islam.  What we apply in our country is the law of justice and the law of God.

   We boast that we stick to religion, each one of us according to his religion. The Muslim upholds his religion and the Christian upholds his, because religion represents the right and sound way . . . we pride ourselves on the fact that since the first day of our Revolution we have adhered to religion. Not only the Revolution leaders, but the people as well. It is the great secret behind the success of the Revolution: the adherence to religion.

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   Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut

   Shaykh Shaltut (1893–1963) was Rector of al-Azhar (Shaykh al-Azhar) from 1958 to 1963, during the high point of Nasserist success and confidence. The following passage comes from his book,Min Tawjihat al-Islam (Islamic Instructions), Cairo, 1964, pp. 567–68, from the chapter entitled 'Government in Islam', which may have first been presented or written in the mid-1950s. My translation. See also the summary of this in Abraham, M.  Mahmud Shaltut (1893–1963), A Muslim Reformist: His Life, Works and Religious Thought, PH.D. Dissertation, Hartford CT: Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1976, pp. 156–57.

   Summary of the Islamic Principles of Government

   1. Sovereignty (siyada): belongs to God alone because He is the creator and owner; within each people (sha‘b1­) it belongs to the people themselves after God who has made them khalifas2 (cf. Qur’an 2:30) within their country (wa?an).

   2. Government (?ukm): belongs to God: it his His right and the right of the people who exercise it by delegation from God.

   3. The ruler: is an agent of the nation (umma); he has no sovereignty over it but rather it is his master and he is its trustworthy servant.

   4. Consultation (shura3): is the basis of government; any government which is not based on consultation is not legitimate (shar‘i).

   5. Collective solidarity: all individuals have collective responsibility for their welfare and the welfare of religion and state.

   6. Popular supervision: the nation has the right to supervise its rulers, to call them to account, to set the broad lines of public policy, to oversee its execution, and to modify it in line with its welfare.

   7. Removal of the khalifa: by the nation if he is unjust and oppressive and his tyranny becomes evident, and he does not heed advice or criticism; if he refuses to step down he may be removed by force even if this leads to warfare and armed revolt, if the nation sees this to be in its interest.

   8. The “people of binding and loosing”4: they are the people of knowledge, opinion and experience in all aspects of the nation's affairs; they are the tongue by which it expresses its pleasure and displeasure, and it is their right to nominate the most suitable of themselves to the caliphate and present him to the nation to decide whether to accept and choose him, without any pressure or compulsion; it is the right of every Muslim to have a say in the choice of the khalifa and to state openly his opinion with complete freedom and without suffering any harm even if it contradicts the majority, although he must accept the will of society.

   9. The goal of government: is the well being of the governed, the establishment of internal tranquility and strength vis-à-vis outside powers, and the spreading of peace.

   1. A word typical of Nasserist vocabulary.

   2. For the idea of humans as khalifa of God, see  Qur'an 2:30, etc.

   3. A key Islamic concept, see Qur'an 3:159 and 42:38.

   4. “The people of binding and loosing” (ahl al-?all wa-l-‘aqd), a phrase used to refer to the natural leaders of a community.

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   Sayyid Qutb (1906–66)

   (Cf. pp. 278–79  of Introducing Islam and the Glossary).

   Sayyid Qutb was born in a village in the area of Asyut in Upper Egypt in 1906 and as a school boy was a strong partisan of Sa‘d Zaghlul’s campaign for Egyptian independence. He moved to Cairo in 1921 to further his education and eventually became a teacher and then an official in the Ministry of Education. He was also a poet, a literary critic and a writer on social issues and he moved in the same circles as Taha Hussein and Abbas al-‘Aqqad (see pp. 94–95 in Introducing Islam and the index on Taha Hussein). His views can be described as secularist and reformist. In the period immediately after the Second World War he voiced harsh criticism of Western imperialism and of the political and economic leadership of Egypt, first in secular terms and then, from 1948, in Islamist terms. Social Justice in Islam, written in 1948, was his first major Islamist statement. From late 1948 until 1950 he was in the United States on a study program and became harshly critical of the materialism of American society. After his return to Egypt he joined the Muslim Brothers and quickly become one of its leading spokespeople. The Brothers first supported but soon became disillusioned with the government of Abdel Nasser, which came to power in 1952. When their leaders were arrested in 1954 Qutb was among them and he remained in prison for most of the rest of his life. He was briefly released in 1964 but rearrested the following year on the charge of conspiring against the government and was executed in 1966, thus becoming a martyr to the Islamist cause. It was in prison that he developed his radical ideas that are found in the passage below and even more in Milestones and parts of In the Shade of the Qur’an. These ideas are considered by many to form an important part of the inspiration of Bin Laden and others connected with al-Qaeda.

   There are large number of books and articles on Sayyid Qutb. A good introductory treatment is Tripp, Charles (1994, republished 2005) “Sayyid Qutb: The Political Vision” in Pioneers of Islamic Revival, ed. Ali Rahmena. London: Zed. Two very good books treating his whole life and thought are Musallam, Adnan (2005) From Secularism to Jihad: Sayyid Qutb and the Foundations of Radical Islamism. Westport: Praeger and Calvert, John (2010) Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism. New York and Chichester: Columbia University Press.

   The most recent book on Sayyid Qutb is Toth, James (2013). Sayyid Qutb: The Life and Legacy of a Radical Islamic Intellectual. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ck

   See also the Wikipedia article on Qutb:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid_Qutb.

    

   Sayyid Qutb (1906–66). Chapter 5 from Social Justice in Islam.

   Separate PDF document on this website.

   Sayyid Qutb and Islamic Activism: A translation and critical analysis of "Social Justice in Islam" (Al-‘Adalah al-ijtima‘iyyah fi al-islam),  Leiden: Brill, 1996.  (ISBN 90-04-10152-7) Website: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx

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   Sayyid Qutb: A “revolutionary” approach.

   The following is from his most radical and best known work, Ma‘alim fi al-?ariq (Milestones or Signposts). Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1973, pp. 87–88, my translation. It represents the latest stage of his thinking and could be described as a charter for Islamic revolution.

   Therefore, before we think about establishing an Islamic social order and establishing a Muslim Society on the basis of this order, we must first direct our concern to purifying the hearts and minds of individuals from service to anything other than God in any of the forms which we have mentioned. The individuals who have purified their minds and hearts from service to anything other than God must come together into a Muslim group (jama‘a muslima), and it is from this group, whose individual members have purified their minds and hearts from service to anything other than God, that the Muslim society will arise. Those will join it who wish to live in this society with its creed, its worship, and its shari‘a by which their service to God alone takes concrete form, or to put it differently, by which the declaration that there is no god but God and Muhammad is the Apostle of God takes concrete form.

   In this manner was formed the first Muslim group which established the first Muslim society, and thus every Muslim group will be formed and every Muslim society established.

   The Muslim society comes into existence only when individuals or groups of people turn from serving something other than God, whether along with or apart from Him, to serving God alone with no associate and when these groups decide to organize their life on the basis of this service. At that point there takes place a new birth of a new society, which splits off from the old jahili society and confronts it with a new creed and, based on that creed, a new order of life in which the two halves of the basic principle of Islam – the declaration that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Apostle of God – take shape.

   Then the old jahili society in its entirety may choose to join the new Islamic society, or it may not. It may make a truce with the new Muslim Society or it may fight against it. But the rule (sunna) has been that the jahili society wages relentless war, both against the vanguards of this society in its earliest stage – when it consists of individuals and groups – and against this society itself after it has actually been established – as has happened without exception in the history of the preaching of Islam, from the prophet Noah, upon whom be peace, to Muhammad, upon whom be blessings and peace.

   It is natural that the new Muslim society can be formed and can secure its existence only if it achieves sufficient strength to face the pressure of the old jahili society. This must include strength of doctrine and thought, strength of moral character and psychological constitution, strength of organization and social structure, and the other forms of strength which will enable it to confront the pressure of the jahili society and conquer it or at least hold out against it.

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   Egyptian Islam is moderate

    

   From a 12th grade Egyptian religious studies text book (1989–90):

   "Islam was Egypt's choice, and the environment of Egypt – through its religious culture since the time of the monotheist Akhenaton – was prepared for Islam, and absorbed it all: doctrine and law, science, culture and conduct.  Since then, Egypt's features have differed from other Islamic countries.  Islam in Egypt is Islam without fanaticism, Islam without extremism, and it is remarkable that Islamic Egypt alone, through fourteen centuries, has never been linked with excess or extremism in its religious conduct. . . .  Indeed, the Egyptian personality is moderate in its religiosity and behavior, middle-of-the-road in its thought and practice, neither excessive nor negligent, and from here were the riches of civilization."

   From: Starret, Gregory (1998) Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt.Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, p. 177.

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   The Wasat Party

    

   The Wasat Party was formed in 1996 by former members of the Muslim Brothers along with others as an ideologically middle of the road party but it was granted legal status as a party only after the resignation of President Husni Mubarak in 2011. The following account of its principles is found in Browers, Michelle (2007) “The Egyptian Movement for Change: Intellectual Antecedents and Generational Conflicts”, Contemporary Islam 1:78 (minor modifications).

   The Wasat party breaks from the traditional rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood in a number of respects. The Wasat claims to be a civil political party with an Islamic frame of reference. According to Madhi (founder of the party), Islam must be understood as a “civilizational concept” (Madhi 2006). The most recent Wasat party program states: “The founding members believe that a general Islamic framework is inclusive of all Egyptians: Islam is not only the religion of the Muslims: it is also, for both Muslims and non-Muslims, the cultural framework within which Egypt’s creative intellectuals, scientists and leaders have made their contributions, and Arabic, the language of Islam, is the language in which Egyptian religious leaders, whether Muslim or Christian, have preached. Islamic culture is the homeland of all Egyptians, Muslim

   and non-Muslim” (Al-Wasat party program, 2004: al-Wasat 2006, 3–4). The Wasat program also champions popular sovereignty, separation and balance of powers, rotation of power through elections, term limits for government post, freedom of belief and speech, the right to found parties, freedom of association, “intellectual and political pluralism” and “complete equality of men and women” (al-Wasat 2006, 6–8, 43). They also maintain that religious discourse must be reformed through ijtihad (independent reasoning): “its contents need to be modernized and its negative concepts, apologetic language and exclusivist, isolation tendencies need to be discoursed” (al-Wasat 2006, 41). Although the party seeks to “make the shari‘a part of the very fabric of daily life,” they do not view Islamic law as a fixed set of rules and guidelines to be applied. Rather, they see it as “an authoritative framework of values and standards” articulated through “human interpretations.” The task, they argue, “is to select interpretations of Islamic law which contribute towards, rather than obstruct, the development of society” (al-Wasat 2006, 4). In addition, they display an openness to ideas emerging from non-Islamic contexts through their rejection of the notion of a “clash of civilizations.” The platform asserts that there exists a “common human civilization” and calls for recognition of “the cooperation, mutual knowledge and complementarity of all cultures” (al-Wasat 2006, 57).

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Chapter 18: Iran: From Secularism to Islamic Revolution

Population of Iran in millions

1800	under 6 (estimated)
1900	10        (estimated)
1932	13        (estimated)
1960	21.5
1980	39.1
1990	54.4
2012	76.4

Source: World Bank

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL

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Qajars

Their titles were: King of Kings (shahan-shah), Shadow of the Almighty, Viceregent of God, Center of the Universe. 

A comment on their reality:

"Thus the Qajars were Shadows of the Almighty whose writ often did not extend beyond the capital; monarchs who considered themselves to be God's representatives on earth but were viewed by the main religious leaders to be usurpers of God's authority; . . . shahan-shahs who ruled not other kings, as they claimed, but through, and so with the kind permission of, "minor kings", such as tribal chiefs, local notables, and religious leaders. In theory the shahs were omnipotent; in practice, they were politically impotent." (Abrahamian, Ervand (1982) Iran between Two Revolutions. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, p. 41

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AYATOLLAHS

Comment on ayatollahs by Sir John Malcolm, British ambassador to Iran, probably about 1800 (quoted by Robin Wright in In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade, New York, etc.: Simon & Shuster, 1989, p. 72 fn):

It is not easy to describe persons who fill no office, receive no appointment, who have no specific duties, but who are called – from their superior learning, piety and virtue – by the silent but unanimous suffrage of the inhabitants . . . to be their guides in religion and their protectors against the violence and oppression of their rulers, and who receive from those by whose feeling they are elevated a respect and duty.

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For a brief survey of the main events of the Constitutional Revolution see: http://countrystudies.us/iran/13.htm.

From the Constitution of 1906–7

Supplementary Constitutional Law of October 8, 1907.

Article 1. The State religion of Iran is Islam, according to the true Ja‘fariya doctrine, recognizing twelve Imams. The Shah of Iran must profess and propagate this faith.

Article 2. At no time may the enactments of the sacred Nation Consultative Assembly, which has been constituted with the aid and favor of His Holiness in Imam of the Age (Twelfth Imam), may God hasten his appearance, the support of his Imperial majesty, may God immortalize his reign, and under the supervision of the learned doctors of theology, may God increase their number, and by the whole Iranian people, be at variance with the sacred precepts of Islam and the laws laid down by His Holiness the Best of Mankind (the Prophet), may the blessings of God rest upon him and his descendants! It is plain that the learned doctors of theology, may God prolong their beneficent lives!, are charged with the duty of determining any contradiction between the laws made by the Assembly and the principles of Islam. It is, therefore, solemnly laid down that at all times there shall be constituted as follows a body of at least five devout doctors of Islam law and jurisprudence who shall at the same time be conversant with the exigencies of their age: [leading scholars will nominate twenty, of whom the Assembly will choose at least five] so that they may carefully discuss and deliberate the bills proposed in both Houses, and reject (veto) any that contravene the holy principles of Islam, so that they shall not become law; the decisions of this body of doctors of theology on this  point shall be followed and obeyed. This clause may not be modified until the advent of the Imam of the Age, may God hasten his reappearance!

Some other provisions of the Constitution:

Article 8. The inhabitants of the Empire of Iran shall enjoy equal rights before the law.

Article 26 The powers of the state are derived from the nation. The method of exercising these powers is regulated by the constitutional law.

Articles 35. Sovereignty is a trust confided, as a divine gift, to the person of the shah by the nation.

(Source: Constitutions of the Countries of the World, ed. Blaustein and Flanz, Historic Constitutions, Vol. I)

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For a brief biography of Muhammad Reza Shah see: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/mohammad_rezashah/mohammad_rezashah.php.

Statements by Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi:

From Bayne, E. A. (1968) Persian Kingship in Transition (New York: American Universities Field Staff), which is based on conversations between the Shah and a sympathetic but not uncritical American scholar.

"The myth of kingship here, together with my own education, my nature – for instance, what I felt about the peasants who form the majority of this country – I think made me knowingly or unknowingly adopt the attitude that a king and his people cannot be separate . . . this view is the reason for my strength." (p. 70)

"Iran needs religion, but we should modernize it with more schools and regularized salaries.  The mullahs should wear uniform clothing and be recognized as clergy.  They must no longer be dependent upon the casual contributions of shopkeepers or be subject to their wishes." (p. 53)

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The scholarly expectation of the decline of the Mullahs and the success of secularism is illustrated by the following statement by a leading expert on Iran:

"The position of the ‘ulama'  seems bound to continue in general to decline as literacy, secular schools and scientific education spread; as Islamic practices regarding the relations of the sexes and other matters are increasingly ignored, and insofar as some of the ‘ulama’  can be identified with a self-seeking opposition to reform." (Keddie, N. [1971] "The Iranian Power Structure and Social Change, 1800–1969: An Overview", International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2)

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For a brief biography of Ali Shariati see:

http://www.iranchamber.com/personalities/ashariati/ali_shariati.php.

For a link to Ali Shariati’s book on the Hajj see:

http://www.al-islam.org/hajj/shariati.

Ali Shariati

Quotations from his writings/lectures (see p. 296 in Introducing Islam)

The first passage comes from a lecture, “Where Shall We Begin”, delivered in 1971, in which Shariati contrasts the usual understanding of an “enlightened person” as an intellectual (usually Western influenced) with his view of an “enlightened person” as an inspired leader usually arising from the people. Abu Dharr was one of the first generation Muslims who rebuked the leaders for worldliness and injustice.

In the tradition of Abu Dharr, who is my mentor, whose thought, whose understanding of Islam and Shi‘ism, whose ideals, wants and rage I emulate, I begin my talk in the name of the oppressed (mustad‘ifin) . . .”

An enlightened Muslim . . . should be fully aware of the fact that he has a unique culture which is . . . a mixture of faith, idealism and spirituality, and yet full of life and energy with a dominant spirit of equality and justice, the ideology that Islamic societies and other traditional societies of the East are in desperate need of. Therefore . . . a Muslim enlightened person should engage himself in discovering extracting, and refining the life-giving and powerful spirit of his society. . .

One characteristic of this spirit is that, unlike other religions which justify poverty, Islam condemns it. A great student of Islam, Abu Dharr, says, “When poverty enters a home, religion exits from the window.” . . .

When Ali assumed power he ordered all existing pay scales to be cancelled, and began paying equal salaries to everyone whether highest ranking military officer, who was at the same time an important social and political figure in the society, or the slave of the same officer. Is there any government in the contemporary world which is committed to the principle of equality as much? Is there any contemporary socialist system which would be ready to implement such a measure? We ought to state and express the outlook, the objectives and the inclinations that make up Islam and tell the enlightened persons that, in the context of their society and culture, in order to be able to obtain mutual understanding with the masses and in order not to be separated from the masses not only must they rely on religion (i.e. Islam) but also honestly believe that the elements of this religion do not invite people to think of the past instead of the present. These elements are based on constant string (jihad) and justice. Islam pays attention to bread, its eschatology is based on active life in the world, its God respects human dignity and its messenger is armed. (Shariati, Ali [1986] What Is to Be Done: The Enlightened Thinkers and an Islamic Renaissance, ed. and trans. Farhang Rajaee. Houston, Texas: Institute for Research and Islamic Studies, pp. 22–23)

Confronting the threefold classes of king-owner-aristocracy is the class of the people, al-nas. The two classes have opposed and confronted each other throughout history. In the class society, Allah stands in the same rank as al-nas, in such a fashion that whenever in the Qur’an social matters are mentioned, Allah and al-nas are virtually synonymous. The two words are often interchangeable, and yield the same meaning. . . .

In the affairs of society, therefore, in all that concerns the social system, but not in creedal matters such as the order of the cosmos, the words al-nas and Allah belong together. Thus when it is said, “Rule belongs to God”, the meaning is that rule belongs to the people . . . .  When it is said, “Property belongs to God,” the meaning is that capital belongs to the people as a whole . . . (Shariati, Ali [1979] On the Sociology of Islam, trans. H. Algar. Berkeley, Calif.: Mizan Press, pp. 116–17)

The political philosophy and the form of regime of the umma is not the democracy of heads, not irresponsible and directionless liberalism. . . . It consists rather of “purity of leadership” (not the leader, for that would be fascism) committed and revolutionary leadership, responsible for the movement and growth of society on the basis of its world view and ideology, and for the realization of the divine destiny of man in the plan of creation. This is the true meaning of imamate!" (Shariati, On the Sociology of Islam, pp. 119–20)

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Khomeini on vilayat-i faqih.

(See Introducing Islam, pp. 296-300)

This passage comes from a series of lectures to students in 1971, when Khomeini was in exile in Najaf, Iraq. They articulated the basic arguments for the kind of government that was to be established after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Source: Khomeini, R. M. (1981)  Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, trans. H. Algar. Berkeley, California: Mizan Press, pp. 61–62. Note the argument toward the end that governmental functions carried out by knowledgeable and just faqihs are no less authoritative and valid than when they were carried out by the Prophet and Ali, a point that I think would be problematic for most Shi‘is.

Now that no particular individual has been appointed by God, Exalted and Almighty, to assume the function of government in the time of Occultation, what must be done? . . .

Not to have an Islamic government means leaving our boundaries unguarded. Can we afford to sit nonchalantly on our hands while our enemies do whatever they want? . . . Is that the way it should be? Or is it rather that government is necessary, and that the function of government that existed from the beginning of Islam down to the time of the Twelfth Imam (upon whom be peace) is still enjoined upon us by God after the Occultation even though He has appointed no particular individual to that function?

The two qualities of knowledge of the law and justice are present in countless fuqaha of the present age. If they would come together, they could establish a government of universal justice in the world.

If a worthy individual possessing these two qualities arises and establishes a government, he will possess the same authority as the Most Noble Messenger (upon whom be peace and blessings) in the administration of society, and it will be the duty of all people to obey him.

The idea that the governmental powers of the Most Noble Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) were greater than those of the Commander of the Faithful (upon whom be peace) [Ali], or that those of the Commander of the faithful were greater than those of the faqih, is false and erroneous. Naturally, the virtues of the Most Noble Messenger were greater than those of the rest of mankind, and after him, the Commander of the Faithful was the most virtuous person in the world. But superiority with respect to spiritual virtues does not confer increased governmental powers. God has conferred upon government in the present age the same powers and authority that were held by the Most Noble Messenger and the Imams (peace be upon them) with respect to equipping and mobilizing armies, appointing governors and officials, and levying taxes and expending them for the welfare of the Muslims. Now, however, it is no longer a question of a particular person; government devolves instead upon one who possesses the qualities and knowledge and justice.

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Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Leader

The following are the provisions of the constitution concerning the Leader as amended in 1989. The 1979 constitution provided that the leader should be a marja‘-i taqlid but this was removed in the amended version. The status of the current Leader, Ali Khamene’i as marja‘ is disputed. Source:  International Constitutional Law (ICL) http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/ir00000_.html#A107_

Article 5  [Office of Religious Leader]     

During the occultation of the Wali al-'Asr (may God hasten his reappearance), the leadership of the Ummah devolve upon the just and pious person, who is fully aware of the circumstances of his age, courageous, resourceful, and possessed of administrative ability, will assume the responsibilities of this office in accordance with Article 107.

Article 107  [Religious Leader]

1. After the demise of Imam Khumayni, the task of appointing the Leader shall be vested with the experts elected by the people.  The experts will review and consult among themselves concerning all the religious men possessing the qualifications specified in Articles 5 and 109.  In the event they find one of them better versed in Islamic regulations or in political and social issues, or possessing general popularity or special prominence for any of the qualifications mentioned in Article 109, they shall elect him as the Leader.  Otherwise, in the absence of such a superiority, they shall elect and declare one of them as the Leader.  The Leader thus elected by the Assembly of Experts shall assume all the powers of the religious leader and all the responsibilities arising therefrom.
2. The Leader is equal with the rest of the people of the country in the eyes of law.

Article 109  [Leadership Qualifications]

1. Following are the essential qualifications and conditions for the Leader:
1. Scholarship, as required for performing the functions of religious leader in different fields.
2. Justice and piety, as required for the leadership of the Islamic Ummah.
3. Right political and social perspicacity, prudence, courage, administrative facilities, and adequate capability for leadership.
2. In case of multiplicity of persons fulfilling the above qualifications and conditions, the person possessing the better jurisprudential and political perspicacity will be given preference.

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From Khomeini's spiritual will:

Since the millions of masses are wakeful and conscious of the situation and at the scene, the humanitarian and Islamic aspects of the Revolution will eventually materialize. I say with confidence now that the Iranian nation and the multi-million masses in this country today are better than the people of Hijaz at the time of God's Messenger (SAW), and the people of Kufa and Iraq during the era of Imam Ali (AS) and Imam Hussein (AS)." [because those people often disobeyed and resisted the prophet and Imams.]  In contrast, however, today we see that the Iranian nation  [is] . . .  performing acts of self-sacrifice . . . , which is evidence of their love of and faith in God and Islam and the Hereafter, despite the fact that they are living neither at the time of His Holiness the Greatest Prophet (S.A.W), nor at the time of Infallible Imam. In so doing they are motivated solely by their faith in the Invisible, which is the secret to victory in its various dimensions, and Islam should take pride in rearing such offspring, and it is a matter of great pride to live in this era and to be in the presence of such a nation.

(Imam’s Final Discourse, Ministry of Guidance and Islamic Culture, pp. 25–26. Can be downloaded at: http://www.hajij.com/library/component/k2/item/118-imams-final-discourse)

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My efforts at “empathetic understanding” of the Iranian position lead me to consider it perfectly understandable that some (many?) Iranians would want nuclear weapons (not necessarily desirable for them to have them):

1. Iran lives in a tough neighbourhood. India, Pakistan, Russia and Israel all have nuclear weapons and all could be enemies under the right circumstances. Naturally they want the weapons too.
2. National pride. Iran is heir to an ancient and great civilization and wants to be great again. In today's world most countries that claim greatness are members of the “nuclear club”.
3. Islamic pride. It must be galling to the makers of what is arguably the one genuine Islamic Revolution that the only "Islamic bomb" is held by Pakistan.
4. It is more than ironic that the country that most wants to police the world's nuclear weapons is the country that has the most nuclear weapons and the only one that has actually used them in war.
5. Iran has not actually broken any international laws.
6. An argument against might be that it violates the rules of jihad because of its indiscriminate destruction.
7. Another argument against is that making such weapons would be too dangerous, inconsistent with the principle of maslaha.

Wa Allahu a‘lam [and God knows best]. 

The author.

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Chapter 19: Indonesia: Islamic Society or Islamic State?

Population of Indonesia

1898	35 million
1960	94 million
1980	148.3 million
1990	178.2 million
2000	206.3 million
2012	246.9 million

1898 figure from Wikipedia

1960–2012 Figures from World Bank

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL

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ABANGAN

 

 “The word abangan means ‘red’ or ‘brown’ and its use in the present sense is first attested in the 1850s as a pejorative term applied by santris, who considered themselves ‘white’ or ‘pure’ (putihan). According to Ricklefs the priyayi-santri-abangan division developed in the later nineteenth century and became hardened and politicized in the twentieth.”

Shepard, W. (forthcoming) "Abangan" The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Islam and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

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SLAMETAN

See p. 308 in Introducing Islam. For a recent discussion of the slametan with emphasis on female activities, see “Kejawen Islam as gendered praxis in Javanese village religiosity”, Ch. 4, Smith, Bianca J. (2008), in Susan Blackburn, Bianca J. Smith and Siti Syamsiyatun,eds, Indonesian Islam in a New Era: How Women Negotiate their Muslim Identities. Clayton: Monash University Press.

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Pesantren

(lit.: place for santris) or Pondok Pesantren (see pp. 140, 309–16 in Introducing Islam)

• Usually founded by a kiai
• Kiai is teacher and spiritual guide
• Students (santris) board (Pondok = hostel)
• Studies include Qur’an, Hadith, fiqh, spiritual and moral training; now also government school curriculum.
• Close relation between kiai and santris
• Financially supported by students and local community
• Usually cheaper than other schools
• Santris may work for pesantren
• Usually in rural areas
• Continuation of pre-Islamic tradition of schools (ashrams?)

For a discussion of women in twentieth-century pesantrens see “Negotiating Public Space: Three Nyai Generations in a Jombang Pesantren”, by Eka Srimulyi.  Ch. 5 in Blackburn et al., Indonesian Islam in a New Era.

Cf. Introducing Islam p. 140, 309–13.

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Panca sila (The Five Principles)

(See pp. 313–16 in Introducing Islam)

• Belief in the one and only Divinity (Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa).
• Just and civilized humanity (Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab).
• The unity of Indonesia (Persatuan Indonesia).
• Democracy guided by consensus arising out of deliberations amongst representatives (Kerakyatan Yang Dipimpin oleh Hikmat Kebijaksanaan, Dalam Permusyawaratan Perwakilan)
• Social justice for the whole of the people of Indonesia (Keadilan Sosial bagi seluruh Rakyat Indonesia).

The “seven words” of the Jakarta Charter (1945)

 “with the obligation for the adherents of Islam to practice the Shari‘a”

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Sukarno on his religious beliefs

(see Introducing Islam, pp. 310–14)

Not back to the early glory of Islam, not back to the time of the caliphs, but run forward, catching up with time (chasing time).  . . . .

If you ask whether Bung Karno believes in God, then I will answer: Yes, I believe in God . . . . I used to hear from my father . . . : The One who made you was God! Even though my father was only half-and-half Muslim. . . . his religion was Islam, but mixed with much Javanese religion. And my mother, her religion was Hinduism mixed with a lot of Buddhism. . . . .

Islam seems to have had an ebb and a flow. . . . Before, there was a rising tide; Islam was like a lighthouse; everybody looked at it, impressed, with pride, with admiration! Later, there came an ebb tide for the Muslim community . . . when other peoples considered Muslims as a group of no importance, as ‘inferior’. How did this happen?  . . . .

If you really want to understand the truth of Islam…free your own mind from the sphere of thinking of the pesantren…and look outwards! And don’t only look to Saudi Arabia, to Mecca and Medina, but look to Cairo, Spain, look around the whole world; look at history, at the past, the past history of the peoples of the world…!

So is God a being on a throne up there? A Being in space, what people call ‘a personal God’? If He lives only up there, God is limited. Isn’t that so?...The Bhagavad-Gita says — I’m not concerned with whether that song is true or not — the Bhagavad-Gita says, ‘I am in the first, I am in the heat of the fire; I am in the moon, I am in the rays of the moon . . . I am in the darkness. I am in the light.  I am without beginning and without end. This agrees with my opinion…I am a monotheist. But I am a pantheistic monotheist. Pantheism means: I feel — feel! — this God everywhere…but He’s One, One. Like, in a rough example, like ether. Penetrating everything.

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Neo-modernists: Nurcholish Madjid

(see Introducing Islam, pp. 315–16)

“Except for the fundamental value of taqwa [fear of God] which grows out of faith in God and worship of Him, there are no fixed values. [Most] values are cultural values which have, of necessity, to develop continuously in accordance with the laws of change and development. Therefore the values of Islam are those which conform to humanity’s true nature or to universal truth and are supported by taqwa toward God. Those values are Islamic if they do not contradict iman [faith] or taqwa, are good according to humanity and its development.” (quoted in Defenders of Reason in Islam, ed. Richard C. Martin, Mark R. Woodward and Dwi S. Atmaja. Oxford: One World Publications, 1997, p. 150)

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From the “Mission Statement” of the Paramadina Foundation.

Paramadina Foundation is a religious institution which is wholly convinced that as the universal values of Islam are made concrete in the context of Indonesia’s local traditions, Islamness and Indonesianness are profoundly integrated. Paramadina Foundation is designed to be a centre for Islamic religiosity which is creative, constructive and positive, for the purpose of the advancement of society, without being defensive or reactionary in attitude. For this reason its core activities are directed towards the building up of society’s capacity to answer the challenges of this age and to contribute towards its growing tradition. This means investing considerable resources in developing the quality and authority of scholarship. As a consequence, the core programme of activities revolves around initiatives to raise up and disseminate an understanding of Islam which is broad in scope, profound, and imbued with a spirit of openness, together with disseminating ideas which support justice, openness and democracy. (Barton, Greg (1997) “Indonesia’s Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid as Intellectual ulema”, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 8.3 [Oct]: 334)

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Abdurrahman Wahid on “Fundamentalism”

Traditionally, Indonesian Muslims had shown the ability to develop as well as implement “Islamic teachings” in the most detailed forms in their daily lives. . . . . Local customs and social frameworks were absorbed and integrated into the religious life of the Muslim in imaginative ways doing justice to the rich heritage of the nation’s past as well as to the virtues of Islam as a universal religion. The result was, and in most cases is, the emergence of a unique way of “Islamic” life, quite distinctive in many respects from its counterparts in other regions of the world.

But in recent times modernity, the present one with its bankrupt imperatives such as the escalation of nuclear arms race and unchecked disparity between the haves and the have nots, brings out a new type of response from an increasingly (although still small in numbers) militant group, mostly from university campuses, demanding a literal adherence to the “true words of God” expressed directly in the Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic traditions. This kind of “Scripturalism”, admittedly not a just word to use here, denotes a rejection of the past adaptive ways of Islam as a religion “living” in a concrete local tradition, replete with nuances enabling it to peacefully accept religious, ethnical and cultural (even political) plurality as the single most important principle regulating the life of the nation in the past. Tolerance is the catchword, now challenged by an increasingly strict and one-sided adherence to universal dictums not yet adapted to local needs. Is the new development within the Islamic polity apt to be named “Islamic fundamentalism”? As stated before, there is no easy answer to this question. (Typescript from author, c. 1984)

For an interview with Abdurrahman Wahid in 2002 see: http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s551141.htm.

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A Radical Islamist View of Democracy and Women

The following is based largely on interviews with Ustad Ja'far Umar Thalib, the commander of Laskar Jihad, in 2000. Note that the phrase ahlus sunnah wal jamaah (Indonesia spelling of the Arabic ahl al-sunna wa-l-jama‘a) is the usual label Sunni Muslims use for themselves.

Laskar Jihad is the paramilitary division of the Forum Komunikasi Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah (most simply translated as the Sunni Communication Forum) or FKAWJ, an organisation formed by a group of hardline Muslim leaders in early 1998 to promote “true Islamic values”. FKAWJ is controlled by a 60-member board of patrons (dewan pembina), of which Ja'far is chairman. Most board members are leaders of pesantren or prominent preachers and it is their followers who form the core of the Laskar Jihad.

FKAWJ doctrine is notable for its narrow Islamism and exclusivism. Although most of Indonesia's main Islamic organisations regard themselves as ahlus sunnah wal jamaah, FKAWJ believe that only they can rightly use this ascription. For example, Ja'far states that neither Nahdlatul Ulama nor Muhammadiyah can claim to be genuinely ahlus sunnah wal jamaah because they have deviated from the Qur'an and example of the Prophet Muhammad and have doctrines which are corrupted by non-Islamic sources

FKAWJ also rejects democracy as “incompatible with Islam” and refuses to support any political party, including the more Islamist parties. According to Ja'far, “in democracy, people who don't understand anything, and they are the majority, elect their leaders without any educated considerations at all. They only elect those that give them money or say what they want to hear.” By these means, religious minorities and nominal Muslims have been able to “thwart the application of Islamic law” in Indonesia. In a genuine Islamic society, it is God's law rather than the will of the people that is supreme. FKAWJ calls for democracy to be replaced by a council of experts [lit.: people of loosing and binding] dominated by Islamic scholars who are learned in Islamic law. The council would have the power to appoint the head of state and control government policy.

Its attitudes to women also place it outside the mainstream. Women are not permitted to hold leadership positions in FKAWJ and cannot join Laskar Jihad. For Ja'far, FKAWJ's main responsibility to women is "to educate them and then marry them to pious men who are capable of preventing them from falling into sin. Men's role is to supervise women and ensure that their behaviour is properly Islamic." Ja'far has three wives, each of whom wears Middle Eastern-style black gowns and headdresses which cover their faces. (Fealy, "Inside the Laskar Jihad" in Inside Indonesia, http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/500/29; link no longer valid.)

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Chapter 20: Globalization

 

Some Definitions of “Globalization”

The tendency of world investment and business to move from national and domestic markets to a worldwide environment.

A complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes seen as increasing integration, and interaction between people and companies in disparate locations.

"Globalization refers in general to the worldwide integration of humanity and the compression of both the temporal and spatial dimensions of planetwide human interaction. ...”

 (Globalization, cultural) a phenomenon by which the experience of everyday life, as influenced by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, reflects a standardization of cultural expressions around the world. ...

Source: http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=globalization+definition&meta=&aq=0&oq=globalization.

See Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Globalization: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference changed its name to The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on 28 June 2011.
http://www.oicun.org/2/23/

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What is Terrorism?

Like other tendentious terms, it is hard to define, but I would suggest the following characteristics:

• It involves violence or the threat of violence to people or damage to property.
• It has a political or ideological goal.
• This goal is immoral in the eyes of those using the term (otherwise they are “freedom fighters”)
• Its victims may usually be described “innocent” or “non-combatants” in relation to the goal in question.
• It is public, aimed at an audience that it seeks to terrorize into doing or not doing something, or at influencing the actions of a government or weakening a government.

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Terrorism before al-Qaeda

(Incomplete list; some may not qualify because of item 3 in the previous frame)

• Russian anarchists in the late nineteenth century
• Jewish groups in Palestine about 1945–48
• Palestinian groups, secular and Islamist, especially since 2000
• Protestant and Catholic groups in Northern Ireland
• Greek Cypriots before independence (1950–60)
• Mau Mau in Kenya before independence (1950s)
• Basque separatists in Spain
• Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka 1983–2009 (said to have carried out more “martyrdom” operations than all the others together)
• French and Muslims in Algerian war of independence (1954–62)
• Algerian government and Islamists in the 1990s
• Mujahidin-i Khalq in Iran carried on “martyrdom” attacks on government leaders in 1981

Terrorism is less an “Islamic” phenomenon than a “modern” phenomenon.

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A Muslim statement on “9/11”

“The undersigned, leaders of Islamic movements, are horrified by the events of Tuesday 11 September 2001 in the United States which resulted in massive killing, destruction and attack on innocent lives. We express our deepest sympathies and sorrow. We condemn, in the strongest terms, the incidents, which are against all human and Islamic norms. This is grounded in the Noble Laws of Islam which forbid all forms of attacks on innocents. God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an: 'No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another' (Surah al-Isra 17:15).”

[Signatures include leaders of the Muslim Brothers, Jama‘at-i Islami, Hamas and others]

(MSANews, 14 September 2001)

 

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Suicide in Islam?

In response to “martyrdom operations” it is commonly argued that suicide is forbidden in Islam. Here are two hadith that bear on the subject. The first bears directly on the issue of suicide and is often referred to. The second bears less directly on it but might be used by those favouring “martyrdom operations”. (SAAS abbreviates the Arabic for “May God bless him and grant him peace.)

A man went to the Messenger of God (Praise be upon him) and said, "I bear witness that you are truly the Messenger of God.” The Prophet said, "What is the matter?" He replied, "The person about whom you just mentioned that he was one of the dwellers in the Fire and the people were surprised at this and I said to them that I would bring news about him, and then I went out in search of him till I found him very seriously injured. He hastened his own death. He placed the blade of his sword on the ground and its tip at his chest and then pressed himself against that and killed himself." Thereupon the Messenger of God (Pbuh) remarked, "A person performs the deeds which to the people appear to be the deeds befitting the dweller of paradise, but he is in fact one of the dwellers of the Fire.  And in truth a person does an act which in the eyes of the public is one which is done by the dwellers of the Fire, but the person is one among the dwellers of Paradise."  [Muslim]

Awf ibn Harith said, "O Messenger of God, what makes the Lord laugh with joy at His servant?” He answered, "When he plunges into the midst of the enemy without armour." Auf drew off the coat of mail that was on him and threw it away; then he seized his sword and fought the enemy till he was slain.  [Sirah of Ibn Ishaq]

The Islamic State[IS], aka The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS):
This is a violent offshoot of al-Qaeda that has come to scholarly and media attention only since the completion of the text of Introducing Islam. Unlike al-Qaeda it seeks to take and hold territory. At present (9 January 2015) holds parts of Iraq and Syria. It aims to become a world-wide caliphate with authority comparable to the classical caliphate. It is extremely anti-Shi‘a and its violence has led al-Qaeda to disown it but some al-Qaeda groups have apparently given allegiance to it. A couple of websites are listed in the section on Websiters. I hope to post more about it here in the future.

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Some Figures on Muslim Populations of Four Countries

	CIA	PEW	CIA	PEW
France	6,405,779	3,554,000	10.0%	6%
Germany	3,046,201	4,026,000	3.7%	5%
UK	1,650,057	1,647,000	2.7%	2.7%
United States*	1,843,273	2,454,000	0.6%	0.8

2009 Population Data (CIA World Factbook, http://www.factbook.net/muslim_pop.php, accessed 15 December 2009, not available 29 September 2013)

 Pew Research Center report of Mapping the Global Muslim Population, as of 8 October 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Muslim_population

*Another source, Muslim Population Worldwide for 2008, gives figures similar to the CIA except for the U.S., for which it gives 6,420,000 and 6.12%. This disparity of figures for the U.S. is well known.

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Four countries: immigration and attitudes

	Large-scale immigration from:	Main ethnicities	Predominant attitude of host country
France	1950s	N. African	Assimilationist
Germany	1962 inter-government agreement	Turkish	Separatist
United Kingdom	1950s	South Asian	Multi-culturalist (with reservations)
United States	1965	Diverse	Integrationist (with reservations)

Assimilationism: immigrants should identify fully with host country and take on its culture.

Separatism: immigrant should remain separate within host country (except for economic contribution) and probably return eventually to the country of origin.

Multi-culturalism: immigrants should identify with host country but retain cultural distinctiveness, which is affirmed by the host country.

Integrationism: immigrants should identify fully with host country but retain some elements of their culture, possibly contributing some of these to the host country (“melting pot”)

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Can the Shari‘a be applied among Muslims in the Western world?

Some points and questions.

• Certain aspects of Shari‘a are already followed, e.g. in ?alah, zakah, etc.
• Matters relating to marriage, etc. are sometimes adjudicated by arbitration by Muslim scholars and recognized by the state (e.g. UK).
• What about matters where secular law and Shari‘a law differ, e.g. in matters of human rights, gender issues?
• Who determines the interpretation of the Shari‘a in given cases?
• Must one system of law, that of the state, have the final say in all cases and for all people?
• Must there be a set of moral principles outside of any particular system of law that is recognized by all?

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From “Civil and Religious Law in England: a Religious Perspective” Archbishop Rowan Williams, 7 February 2008. From the internet: http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/1137.

 I have been arguing that a defence of an unqualified secular legal monopoly in terms of the need for a universalist doctrine of human right or dignity is to misunderstand the circumstances in which that doctrine emerged, and that the essential liberating (and religiously informed) vision it represents is not imperilled by a loosening of the monopolistic framework.

 

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LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE ISLAM

Fazlur Rahman on Prophetic Revelation

“There were moments when [the Prophet], as it were, ‘transcends himself’ and his moral cognitive perception becomes so acute and so keen that his consciousness becomes identical with the moral law itself. ‘Thus did we inspire you with a Spirit of Our command: You did not know what the Book was, But We have made it a light’ (Qur’an 42:52). But the moral law and religious values are God’s Command, and although they are not identical with God entirely, they are part of Him. The Qur’an is, therefore, purely divine. . . . When Muhammad’s moral intuitive perception rose to the highest point and became identified with the moral law itself . . . , the Word was given with the inspiration itself. The Qur’an is thus pure Divine Word, but, of course, it is equally intimately related to the inmost personality of the Prophet Mu?ammad, whose relationship to it cannot be mechanically conceived like that a of a record. The Divine Word flowed through the Prophet’s heart.” (Rahman, Fazlur[1966] Islam, London: Widenfeld and Nicolson, pp. 32–33)

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Amina Wadud on interpretation of the Quran

Therefore each new Islamic society must understand the principles intended by the particulars. Those principles are eternal and can be applied in various social contexts.

For example, in Arabia at the time of the revelation, women of wealthy and powerful tribes were veiled and secluded as an indication of protection. The Qur’an acknowledges the virtue of modesty and demonstrates it through the prevailing practices. The principle of modesty is important – not the veiling and seclusion which were manifestations particular to that context. These were culturally and economically determined demonstrations of modesty. Modesty is not a privilege of the economically advantaged only; all believing women deserve the utmost respect and protection of their modesty – however it is observed in various societies.

“This method of restricting the particulars to a specific context, extracting the principles intended by the Qur’an through that particular, and then applying those principles to other particulars in various cultural contexts, forms a major variation from previous exegetical methodologies. The movement from principles to particulars can only be done by the members of whatever particular context a principle is to be applied. Therefore, interpretation of the Qur’an can never be final.”

(Wadud, Qur’an and Woman, Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1992, p. 10)

“A hermeneutical model which drives basic ethical principles for further developments and legal considerations by giving precedence to general statements rather than particulars could solve many problems in applications.” (Ibid., 30)

Overall, my analysis tends to restrict the meaning of many passages to a particular subject, event or context. These restrictions are based on the context of the verses or on application of general Qur’anic concepts of justice.  (Ibid., 63)

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Abdulkarim Soroush on Prophetic Revelation

But the Prophet is also the creator of the revelation in another way. What he receives from God is the content of the revelation. This content, however, cannot be offered to the people as such, because it is beyond their understanding and even beyond words. It is formless and the activity of the person of the Prophet is to form the formless, so as to make it accessible. Like a poet again, the Prophet transmits the inspiration in the language he knows, the styles he masters and the images and knowledge he possesses.

But his personality also plays an important role in shaping the text. His personal history: his father, his mother, his childhood. And even his moods. If you read the Koran you feel that the Prophet is sometimes jubilant and highly eloquent while at other times he is bored and quite ordinary in the way he expresses himself. All those things have left their imprint on the text of the Koran. That is the purely human side of revelation.

A human view of the Koran makes it possible to distinguish between the essential and the accidental aspects of religion. Some parts of religion are historically and culturally determined and no longer relevant today. That is the case, for instance, with the corporal punishments prescribed in the Koran. If the Prophet had lived in another cultural environment, those punishments would probably not have been part of his message.

(From The Word of Mohammad An interview with Abdulkarim Soroush By Michel Hoebink  December 2007 (http://www.drsoroush.com/English/Interviews/E-INT-The%20Word%20of%20Mohammad.html)

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Soroush on Diversity

(Interview published in the Tehran daily Jameah in 1998 and in the book: Siyasat Nameh)

Q. Are you weakening the traditional outlook or are you basically trying to negate monolithic thinking? Or is your quarrel the same old quarrel of the mystics and the jurists. Or is the whole thing simply a product of your political extremism?

A. What I’m doing is introducing rivals, alternatives and companions. That is to say, if you imagine a solitary figure standing on the stage, what I’m doing is introducing a few other figures, who may be taller or shorter, onto the stage. In the realm of knowledge, I seek plurality. I came upon this notion when I was studying the philosophy of history. Before the revolution, the only such philosophy current in our country was the Marxist philosophy of history. Motahhari and Shariati’s philosophy of history, too, was the Marxist one in another guise. They asked the same questions. The only difference was that they offered different answers. Bear in mind here that the framework of any technique is the questions it asks, not the answers it presents. In fact, the agenda had been set by the Marxists, not by them. When I was studying the philosophy of science and the history of science abroad, the first thing that caught my eye was not that the Marxist philosophy of history was wrong but there were a number of other schools of thought on the subject. However, the only school of thought that had engaged and gripped our minds – making us ask questions about “the engine of history” and “the stages of historical development” – was Marxism. One side replied that the engine of history was “class struggle”, the other replied, no, it is “religion”. But they were both answering the same question. That’s when it dawned on me that there was a need for other frameworks in which other questions could be raised. This was enough to break the unwarranted spell cast by the Marxist philosophy of history.

I stressed this same point repeatedly later in a book I wrote on the philosophy of history and in the various courses I taught at university. In other instances, too, I have done exactly the same thing. The fact of the matter is that the history of humanity has developed in an inherently pluralistic way. In other words, history is full of alternatives and parallel lines. Linear and one-dimensional history is a figment of the imagination of history professors, not a product of the history-making masses. Looking for and seeing parallel lines gives one an open-mindedness and breadth of vision that can solve a host of problems.

Yes, if other viewpoints and traditions are brought onto the stage, the traditional viewpoint will no longer be the be all and end all of all history and knowledge. But why should I worry about that? I have only presented the rivals, I haven’t created them.

 

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Tariq Ramadan on the basis for living in a Western country:

1. A Muslim is involved in a contract with the country in which he lives.
2. European legislation allows Muslims to practice at least the basics of their religion.
3. Concept of Dar al-Harb is outdated; Europe is Dar al-Da‘wa or Dar al-Shahada, “the West is space where the shahada can be pronounced, respected and witnessed.”
4. Muslims should see themselves as full citizens.
5. European legislation does not prevent Muslims from making choices in accord with their religion. 
6. “Dialectical” relationship to the environment, “. . . a coexistence which would not be peace in separation but living together in participation”

For an interview with Tariq Ramadan see:

http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?article10681&lang=fr.

 

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Muhammad Sa‘id al-‘Ashmawi on interpretation of the Qur’an

The Qur'an, as the revelation of God, is the main source of the Shari‘a, but interpreting it is a complex task which requires considerable background knowledge.  Almost all of the verses of the Qur'an were revealed to particular situations which are the "causes of revelation" (asbab al-tanzil  or asbab al-nuzul) and which must be known and taken account of since they determine the meaning of the text.  He insists on "causes" (asbab) not "occasions" (munasibat) of revelation if by the latter one means a purely external or accidental relation between the event and the text. For example, that favorite Islamist text, "Whoever does not rule (ya?kum) by what God has revealed, they are the kafirs", was revealed in relation to the Jews of Muhammad's time who refused to put certain rules of the Torah into effect and was not intended for Muslims, according to Al-‘Ashmawi. Likewise, the passage, "Do not take Jews and Christians as friends. . .", was directed to a particular situation of conflict with the Banu Qurayza and is not to be taken as a general directive on intercommunal relations. One must also pay attention to the meanings of terms at the time of revelation, for many, have changed their meanings since then, as has the term shari‘a itself. For example, at the time of revelation the word ya?kum, in the passage cited above, did not refer to government but to the action of a judge or mediator. The Qur'an uses another term for the political actions of rulers, amr (command). Hence it is inappropriate to apply this passage to government.

(Shepard, W. [1996] "Muhammad Sa‘id al-‘Ashmawi and the Application of the Shari‘ah", International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 [February]: 44.)

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Chapter 21: Three Cultural Flashpoints

Note that when we discuss gender, democracy and human rights in relation to Islam and the Muslim world we inevitably make explicit or implicit comparisons with Western ideas and practice, often with idealized versions of these. Thus some attention is given here to these Western ideas and practices, historical or present.

Gender

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  (Preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence)

What is meant by “men” here? Does/did it exclude women and slaves?

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 “Traditional” Muslim: basic attitudes (selective points)

Qur’an makes women and men equal as humans.

• Both are to submit (islam) to God and will be rewarded or punished in the afterlife. “Muslim men and muslim women (muslimun wa-muslimat) . . . God has prepared for them forgiveness and a great reward” (Qur’an 33:35, quoted fully under Chapter 5, cf. 4:32).
• Paradise is depicted in male-friendly terms (female companions promised), women are said to have questioned this and Qur’an 33:35 ff was revealed in response.
• Adam and Eve are equally responsible for the initial disobedience.

“And We said, O Adam, dwell in paradise, you and your wife, and eat from it free as you wish, but do not approach this tree lest by become wrong-doers. But Satan caused them to slip and expelled them from where they had been. We said, Go down, all of you, enemies to each other, but on earth you will have a dwelling place and enjoyment for a time. And Adam received words from his Lord and his Lord pardoned him, for He is Forgiving and Merciful.” (2:35–37)

Note that Adam’s wife is not named here or elsewhere in the Qur’an but is named, Hawa’ in later writings.

Hadith and Reports

• Eve tempts Adam
• Women said to be deficient in religion
• Prophets said to be all men
• Women such as Khadija, ‘A’isha, and Fatima were important in Muhammad’s life

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The main Qur’anic passage relating to women’s dress is the following:

Tell believing men to lower their gaze and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, God is aware of what they do.

Tell believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not to show their adornment, except that part of it which appears and draw their veils (khumur) over their bosoms (juyub)  and not to show their adornments except to their husbands,  their fathers,  their husbands’ fathers, or their sons, or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brother’s sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their fellow Muslim women, or their female slaves, or their male attendants who lack sexual desire, or children who are not yet sexually aware. Let them not stamp their feet so as to make known their hidden adornments. And turn to God, all of you believers, so that you may prosper. (24:30-1)

A translation by Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and Muhammd Muhsin Khan, Translation of the meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English Language, Madinah: King fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex [1404 H], glosses juyub (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms).

It is commonly said among conservative Muslims that women must allow only their faces and hands to appear and men must be covered from the knees to the navel.

Hadith and early Report

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A FEMALE SUFI SAINT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY EGYPT]

Nur al-Sabah was born c.1824 in a town noted for its association with the Shadhili tariqa and its piety. As a young girl she was allowed to attend the weekly dhikr sessions and soon she began to seek privacy for her devotions. Her reputation for piety became such that she was asked to recite the fatiha at the close of the dhikr sessions. She also liked to wander about alone. She became rebellious when, as an adolescent, her activities were restricted and objected when her father began to negotiate for her marriage, claiming that as a servant of God and of the walis she did not want to marry. When her father went ahead with the ceremonies she disappeared miraculously from the bridal chamber and reappeared in the guest room of her father’s house, where she reasserted her refusal to marry. Her father and rest of the village acceded to this and recognized that she was a wali. It is said her status as wali confirmed when she appeared out of nowhere to give water to another wali (possibly Ahmad al-Badawi) who was travelling in the desert. She regularly attended several mulids including that of Ahmad al-Badawi and eventually she moved to Tanta and established a tekke there, where she offered food and hospitality and cured many people. She also sponsored a weekly session (hadra) in which dhikr was performed. Both the common people and the elite came to visit her and seek her baraka, but she saw herself especially as the servant of the poor. Crossing Nur al-Sabah could be dangerous, however. A Sufi who criticized her custom of feeding dogs was struck with paralysis and then died. Nur died in 1909, just after her tomb was completed. An adjoining mosque was under construction at the time. She did not follow a particular tariqa nor did she found a tariqa although a khalifa continues to manage the mosque and tekke. Her activities as a wali did not end with her death. She intervened, through dreams and in other ways, to prevent her tekke from being sold for non-payment of a mortgage some decades later.

(Synopsis from Reeves, Hidden Government, 52-57, 71-72)

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Democracy

Older thinking, both Western and Muslim, tended to privilege order and fear anarchy more than tyranny:

 “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.” Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_hobbes.html#R2dLo0HWcHcpYbjm.99)

“Thirty years of tyranny are better than one day of anarchy.” Hadith

Do events since 2011 in many Arab countries suggest a reason for this?

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Democracy in early Islam?

bay‘a = allegiance, sworn to a ruler.

Shura =  consultation, “Those who respond to their Lord . . . conduct their affairs by mutual consultation (Qur’an 42:38, cf. 3:159)

By/with whom? “The people of binding and loosing” (ahl al-?all wa-l-‘aqd)

Later views and practices

• Leader chosen by God (in some sense).
• Obedience to leader commanded (“You who believe, obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you” Qur’an 4:59).
• So long as he obeys God.
• Government not “by the people” but “for the people”?

General points:

• Shari‘a as rule of law.
• Absence of Racism in theory. In practice?
• Dhimma as “second class citizenship”?

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Modern conundrums

Democracy is one of the “secrets” of Western strength

      or

democracy is an adoption of alien kafir ideas and practices and will undermine Islam?

Islam properly understood is democracy

        or

democracy is the rule of humans in place of God and thus a form of kufr.

“Modern” reforms seem most easily to be put in place by autocratic rulers (e.g. Muhammad Ali, Atatürk, Reza Shah) and elites.

“The liberals are not democrats and the democrats are not liberals” (Said of Egypt in 2011 and after. Introducing Islam, p. 356)

(Liberals = those who support free speech, free press, etc., generally from the Western oriented elite)

Democrats = those who have popular support, e.g. Muslim Brothers)

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Progress of democracy in Turkey

Ottoman Empire: Hereditary ruler with parliament from 1908 but CUP dictatorship.

Popular movement under Grand National Assembly and Atatürk 1920.

Republic to 1950: Republic with strong president, one party, laicism enforced, elite rule.

Republic after 1950: elected government, multi-party, more attention to popular desires, military (with laic ideology) oversees and takes over periodically.

Under AKP: more open to diverse views, military and laic elite sidelined to some extent, progress on human rights, Gezi park protests show dissatisfaction with government authoritarianism, rights violations, etc.

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Progress of democracy in Iran

Qajar Monarchy to 1925: Hereditary ruler with constitution and parliament from 1906 but with little effect because of civil way and foreign interference.

Pahlavi Monarchy 1925–79: Parliament, mainly elite dominated, but strong royal autocracy, controlled political parties and activity, except for freer politics from 1941 to 1953.

Popular revolution 1978–9.

Islamic Republic 1979–: Established by plebiscite. Freely elected and active parliament and president, but restricted by ‘ulama through unelected supreme leader and agencies such as the Guardian Council.

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Progress of democracy in Indonesia

Dutch rule to 1942. Colonial government with some consultation. Political movements, some for independence.

Japanese rule 1942–45. Effectively colonial government with some consultation. Political movements controlled.

Popular war for independence 1945–50.

Republic, Sukarno period 1945–1966. Free elections to parliament in 1955. “Guided Democracy” 1959–65. Pogrom against Communists 1965–66.

Republic, Suharto period 1966–98. Military president. Elections and partly controlled and manipulated.

Republic, Post-Suharto. Free elections, stable leadership under Yudhoyono from 2004.

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Human Rights

Selections from major human rights documents

The U.S. “Declaration of Independence” (1776)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

(http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html)

U.S. Bill of Rights

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (First amendment to U.S. Constitution. http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment )

The French “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” (1789)

“The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties . . . . Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

Articles:

• Men (les hommes) are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
• The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
• The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.
• Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

. . . (continues)

(http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp)

United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 16.  1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or reli­gion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

 (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr)

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Rights in Islamic society: positive bases

Humans are created by God and are in principle equal spiritually

“The most noble of you is the most God-fearing” (Qur’an 49:13)

“He (God) created you from a single nafs (soul, person), then made from it its partner.” (Qur’an 39:6)

“O humankind, We created you from a male and a female . . . , in God’s sight the most pious is the most noble of you.” (Qur’an 49:13)

Some passages of the Qur’an suggest freedom for religious differences:

“Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, Christians and Sabeans, whoever believes in God and the Last Day, and does righteous deeds – shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.” (2:62; cf. 5:69 but see, e.g. 9:29,  on jizya).

The concept of the “aims of the Shari‘a (maqa?id al-shari‘a)”, usually said to consist of protection of religious faith, of life, of progeny, of property and of the mind, would appear to be at least potentially consistent with the idea of human rights (contrast Introducing Islam p. 151)

The concept of Shari‘a implies a form of the rule of law, which is generally seen as necessary for human rights.

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Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, endorsed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 1990

Selections

Article 1(a) All human beings form one family whose members are united by their subordination to Allah and descent from Adam. All men are equal in terms of basic human dignity and basic obligations and responsibilities, without any discrimination on the basis of race, colour, language, belief, sex, religion, political affiliation, social status or other considerations. The true religion is the guarantee for enhancing such dignity along the path to human integrity.

Article 2 (a) Life is a God-given gift and the right to life is guaranteed to every human being. It is the duty of individuals, societies and states to safeguard this right against any violation, and it is prohibited to take away life except for a shari'ah prescribed reason.

Article 5 (a) The family is the foundation of society, and marriage is the basis of making a family. Men and women have the right to marriage, and no restrictions stemming from race, colour or nationality shall prevent them from exercising this right.

(b) Society and the State shall remove all obstacles to marriage and shall facilitate marital procedure. They shall ensure family protection and welfare.

Article 6 (a) Woman is equal to man in human dignity, and has her own rights to enjoy as well as duties to perform, and has her own civil entity and financial independence, and the right to retain her name and lineage.

Article 10 Islam is the religion of true unspoiled nature. It is prohibited to exercise any form of pressure on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to force him to change his religion to another religion or to atheism.

Article 11 (a) Human beings are born free, and no one has the right to enslave, humiliate, oppress or exploit them, and there can be no subjugation but to Allah the Almighty.

Article 11 (b) Colonialism of all types being one of the most evil forms of enslavement is totally prohibited. Peoples suffering from colonialism have the full right to freedom and self-determination. It is the duty of all States peoples to support the struggle of colonized peoples for the liquidation of all forms of colonialism and occupation, and all States and peoples have the right to preserve their independent identity and control over their wealth and natural resources.

Article 24: All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari'ah.

(http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/cairodeclaration.html)

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cairo_Declaration_on_Human_Rights_in_Islam