The Moral Ceiling of Intellectual Investigation
Islamic Discourse
When Jihad Turns From Struggle To Murder
The Moral Ceiling of Intellectual
Investigation
Rose El-Yousef
1 of 3
The Lost "Manual of Operations" of Knowledge, Politics, and Religion
Islamic civilization was built on knowledge. The early Muslims established intellectual disciplines that served the core of their civilization: the Holy Book. They adhered to this core, served it, followed it, and made it a standard for acceptance, rejection, and evaluation. Muslims developed new intellectual disciplines in addition to transmitting knowledge from communities that preceded them, which aided them in understanding reality, comprehending the world as it is, and grasping metaphysical truth. They compiled this knowledge and passed it on to their contemporaries and those who came after them. We witnessed the age of translation during the reign of al-Ma’mun, and in authors like al-Biruni in his book "Tahqiq ma lil-Hind min Maqulatah Mamduhah fi al-Aql 'aw Mardhula" ("A Critical Study of What India Says, Whether Accepted by Reason or Refuted"), and al-Khawarizmi in "Miftah al-'Ulum" ("The Key of Knowldege"), which outlines the epistemological approach in Islamic history and observes diversity on the one hand and engagement on the other. These are the two characteristics that are agreed on by all who have studied the Islamic tradition and its intellectual product.
The development of sciences and disciplines (tawlid al-‘ulum) was characteristic of the adherents of Islam up until the fourth century A.H. In fact, it extended well into the sixth century when ‘Adud al-Din al-Iji created a new intellectual discipline that he called ’ilm al-Wad’', which he derived from the disciplines of linguistics, grammar, syntax, theology (usul), and logic. The most important thing that he addressed with this was the question of terminology. This remains one of the most crucial epistemological questions to this day since terminology is a regulator of knowledge and provides for the maintenance of scientific language and mutual understanding within the scientific community. It is comprised of two important aspects: passing on knowledge to those who come after us, and the constant, continuous, and disciplined development of knowledge. This generation of knowledge died out and scholars became preoccupied with repeating inherited knowledge and protecting it from being lost in reaction to what happened in the seventh century with the Tatar invasion and the fall of Baghdad in 656 A.H.
Muhammad Rashid Rida, in his article entitled "Karamat al-Awliya'" ("The Miracles of the Saints"), in Al-Manar magazine (issue 26 of the second year, Saturday, 3 Jumada al-Akhir, 1317 Hijri, 9 September, 1899 AD) called for the creation of a new intellectual discipline that would study the Divine norms (al-sunan al-ilahiyah) mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, but this was not accomplished until nearly one hundred years after he made this call. We must realize that the development of sciences and disciplines is a manifestation of intellectual life and that it has not died out. It is also an manifestation of engaging with the age in which we live. It is, thirdly, the bridge that connects Islamic Law (shariah) with the world around us.
Many sincere people ask how one can develop new sciences and disciplines. It requires the ability for creative imagination, which may not be possessed by many of those who are occupied with the transmittal and maintenance of knowledge. Creative imagination is needed for ijtihad, and our ancestors counted it as one of its essential requirements. Its absence indicates that the process of ijtihad, which originates in the innate ability of the jurist, has died out. In affirmation of this we see Imam al-Suyuti remarking, “'Ibn Burhan said, ‘Consensus cannot be reached if one mujtahid disagrees, which is an opposing position from the rest of the jurists. The main argument of the adversary is that if a vast number [1] of mujtahids agree on a certain issue, the isolated opinion of one mujtahid only indicates the weakness of his opinion. We replied to this saying that this is not true since the opinion agreed upon by everyone may only be an apparent meaning that immediately presents itself in the mind, and the individual's opinion may be more accurate and obscure. Furthermore, this individual may have stood apart from the rest in possessing superior powers of intellection and greater intellectual clarity. That is why, in every age, there is someone who is superior in knowledge who establishes issues from other issues and generates that which is unique.’” [2]
Al-Suyuti then quotes Al-Ghazali as saying, “Conceptualizing issues is in itself not a light matter. In fact, an intelligent person may be able to issue fatwas on any issue if he is provided with its conceptualization, but if required to conceptualize it himself, to conceive of all of the issues that branch off from it and all related scenarios and happenings, he would be incapable of doing so and these conceptualizations would not even occur to him for these are the affairs of the mujtahids.’” [3]
Let us give an example of the development of sciences and discipline in answer to those who want a model that they can follow, and in order to ease the minds of those who doubt this process and think it may conceal an attack on the immutable foundations of religion or detract from the identity of Islam. We will try to shed some light on the seeds of generating knowledge as well as its mechanisms in the Islamic tradition in the hopes that we may begin to understand the methodology that the agents of that tradition followed in service of their civilization.
Since the subject has arisen, methodology, in my opinion, is a comprehensive vision from which emanate executable steps. This comprehensive vision is the paradigm that we have discussed previously, whereas the processes represent the method of intellectual investigation that we see with the scholars of juristic methodology. Al-Razi and his school of thought define juristic methodology as: knowledge of juristic evidences in general, how to derive specific rulings from them, and the condition of the one carrying out the derivation. In other words he spoke about the sources of juristic research, how to go about conducting it and the ways of attaining it, and the characteristics of a researcher. These are precisely the three essential components of the scientific method as later defined by Roger Bacon: the sources, the approaches, and the researcher.
Before we delve further into the mechanisms of developing sciences and disciplines, we need to understand some things about the position of religion towards knowledge. Not only do we say that Islam is a religion of knowledge, we also perceive its position towards intellectual investigation wherein it considers there to be no prohibition or restrictions on intellectual investigations whatsoever; anyone who wants to may investigate anything they want and attempt to understand the world as they like, and uncover what they want about God's creation in His universe. This is a guarantee for creativity and it is based on the fact that the very beginning of God’s revelation was Read in the name of your Lord who created. He created man from a clot. Read and your Lord is Most Honorable, Who taught with the pen [96: 1-4]. It has been mentioned that the first reading is a reading of existence, and the second is a reading of revelation, and they both emanate from God, the first from the domain of creation, and the second from the domain of the command: Surely His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds [7: 54]. Based on this there is no end to perceiving existence since it represents truth by virtue of its originating with God, and there is no end to perceiving revelation. The Prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him, said, "There is no end to its wonders and it does not become worn out through much repetition." (narrated by A.-Tirmidhi and Al-Darimi). There is also no contradiction between the two since they both emanate from God. This basis is confirmed in His saying Are those who know and those who do not know alike? [39: 9].
However, the use of information must fall within the moral bounds for application, which are taken from the goals of human beings in the world: to worship, to engage in positive development, and to purify the self. These prevent the use of what we have arrived at for things that disagrees with Divine commandments and prohibitions, or in ways that would invalidate the comprehensive goals of religion. Accordingly, we become constructive, rather than destructive people. These bounds of application are of the utmost importance since they are the only guarantee for this positive development.
The distinction between the freedom of investigation to arrive at correct knowledge and restricting applications of this knowledge in order to arrive at positive development has confused many people despite its clarity and reaffirmation.
It is a fact that disciplines of knowledge posses a comprehensive conceptualization that is represented in the form of a complete instructional process for the conveyance of information, and education for the inculcation of values, and vocational training to acquire skills. All of this cannot be separated, and if it is, we will lose the "manual of operations," so to speak. The loss of the manual of operations leads to confusion and disorder. It seems that we have indeed lost this manual of operations in many spheres of our life today, not just our intellectual lives, but also in our political, social, and religious lives.
It is also a fact that there is a difference between religious knowledge and religiosity. The first is carried out by a group of intellectuals and has its sources and methods. The educational process, as we indicated earlier, has essential integral aspects that must be complemented by its five basic elements: a student, a teacher, a method, a text, and an intellectual environment. The second, religiosity, is required of all those who fall under legal obligation for the purpose of ordering their relationship with themselves, the universe, and God.
Another fact is that there is a difference between jurisprudence (fiqh) and intellectual contemplation (fikr). The subject of jurisprudence is he actions of those who are legally obligated. Jurisprudence is concerned with describing the actions of the legally obligated as something to be engaged in or abstained from and classifies them as permissible (halal) or forbidden (haram) implementing five juristic rulings: the obligatory (al-wajib), the recommended (al-mandub), the prohibited (al-haram), the disliked (al-makruh), and the permissible (al-mubah). As for intellectual contemplation, it deals with the relative, complex, and ever-changing lived reality. People use this to order informational matters as premises in order to arrive at an unknown as a conclusion. The intellectual process is the bridge between Islamic law and the world. For this reason it requires spheres of knowledge that are continuously being generated and renewed since the nature of the reality that we are trying to apprehend is highly complex and variable.
If all of the aforementioned is agreed upon, then the Islamic tradition has laid down what are called "the ten bases." These are the elements that must be taken into consideration when disciplines of knowledge are generated, namely: the definition of the discipline, its subject, its originator, its relation to other disciplines, the disciplines upon which it draws, its rulings and the issues with which it deals, its merit, the ruling of studying it, its name, and the fruits and benefits to be gained through it. These ten elements represent a entrance to any discipline that an intellectual seeking to establish a discipline of knowledge can ascertain as a beginning towards the independence of the discipline or its creation. So how is this done?
Until next week…
______________________________________________
[1] The orginal wording in the Arabic uses the word tawatur.
[2] Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Ar-Radd 'ala man Akhlada ila al-Ard wa Jahila anna al-Ijtihad fi Kull 'Asr Fard (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, 1983), 169
[3] ibid., 181
______________________________________________
Rose El-Yousef
1 of 3
The Lost "Manual of Operations" of Knowledge, Politics, and Religion
Islamic civilization was built on knowledge. The early Muslims established intellectual disciplines that served the core of their civilization: the Holy Book. They adhered to this core, served it, followed it, and made it a standard for acceptance, rejection, and evaluation. Muslims developed new intellectual disciplines in addition to transmitting knowledge from communities that preceded them, which aided them in understanding reality, comprehending the world as it is, and grasping metaphysical truth. They compiled this knowledge and passed it on to their contemporaries and those who came after them. We witnessed the age of translation during the reign of al-Ma’mun, and in authors like al-Biruni in his book "Tahqiq ma lil-Hind min Maqulatah Mamduhah fi al-Aql 'aw Mardhula" ("A Critical Study of What India Says, Whether Accepted by Reason or Refuted"), and al-Khawarizmi in "Miftah al-'Ulum" ("The Key of Knowldege"), which outlines the epistemological approach in Islamic history and observes diversity on the one hand and engagement on the other. These are the two characteristics that are agreed on by all who have studied the Islamic tradition and its intellectual product.
The development of sciences and disciplines (tawlid al-‘ulum) was characteristic of the adherents of Islam up until the fourth century A.H. In fact, it extended well into the sixth century when ‘Adud al-Din al-Iji created a new intellectual discipline that he called ’ilm al-Wad’', which he derived from the disciplines of linguistics, grammar, syntax, theology (usul), and logic. The most important thing that he addressed with this was the question of terminology. This remains one of the most crucial epistemological questions to this day since terminology is a regulator of knowledge and provides for the maintenance of scientific language and mutual understanding within the scientific community. It is comprised of two important aspects: passing on knowledge to those who come after us, and the constant, continuous, and disciplined development of knowledge. This generation of knowledge died out and scholars became preoccupied with repeating inherited knowledge and protecting it from being lost in reaction to what happened in the seventh century with the Tatar invasion and the fall of Baghdad in 656 A.H.
Muhammad Rashid Rida, in his article entitled "Karamat al-Awliya'" ("The Miracles of the Saints"), in Al-Manar magazine (issue 26 of the second year, Saturday, 3 Jumada al-Akhir, 1317 Hijri, 9 September, 1899 AD) called for the creation of a new intellectual discipline that would study the Divine norms (al-sunan al-ilahiyah) mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, but this was not accomplished until nearly one hundred years after he made this call. We must realize that the development of sciences and disciplines is a manifestation of intellectual life and that it has not died out. It is also an manifestation of engaging with the age in which we live. It is, thirdly, the bridge that connects Islamic Law (shariah) with the world around us.
Many sincere people ask how one can develop new sciences and disciplines. It requires the ability for creative imagination, which may not be possessed by many of those who are occupied with the transmittal and maintenance of knowledge. Creative imagination is needed for ijtihad, and our ancestors counted it as one of its essential requirements. Its absence indicates that the process of ijtihad, which originates in the innate ability of the jurist, has died out. In affirmation of this we see Imam al-Suyuti remarking, “'Ibn Burhan said, ‘Consensus cannot be reached if one mujtahid disagrees, which is an opposing position from the rest of the jurists. The main argument of the adversary is that if a vast number [1] of mujtahids agree on a certain issue, the isolated opinion of one mujtahid only indicates the weakness of his opinion. We replied to this saying that this is not true since the opinion agreed upon by everyone may only be an apparent meaning that immediately presents itself in the mind, and the individual's opinion may be more accurate and obscure. Furthermore, this individual may have stood apart from the rest in possessing superior powers of intellection and greater intellectual clarity. That is why, in every age, there is someone who is superior in knowledge who establishes issues from other issues and generates that which is unique.’” [2]
Al-Suyuti then quotes Al-Ghazali as saying, “Conceptualizing issues is in itself not a light matter. In fact, an intelligent person may be able to issue fatwas on any issue if he is provided with its conceptualization, but if required to conceptualize it himself, to conceive of all of the issues that branch off from it and all related scenarios and happenings, he would be incapable of doing so and these conceptualizations would not even occur to him for these are the affairs of the mujtahids.’” [3]
Let us give an example of the development of sciences and discipline in answer to those who want a model that they can follow, and in order to ease the minds of those who doubt this process and think it may conceal an attack on the immutable foundations of religion or detract from the identity of Islam. We will try to shed some light on the seeds of generating knowledge as well as its mechanisms in the Islamic tradition in the hopes that we may begin to understand the methodology that the agents of that tradition followed in service of their civilization.
Since the subject has arisen, methodology, in my opinion, is a comprehensive vision from which emanate executable steps. This comprehensive vision is the paradigm that we have discussed previously, whereas the processes represent the method of intellectual investigation that we see with the scholars of juristic methodology. Al-Razi and his school of thought define juristic methodology as: knowledge of juristic evidences in general, how to derive specific rulings from them, and the condition of the one carrying out the derivation. In other words he spoke about the sources of juristic research, how to go about conducting it and the ways of attaining it, and the characteristics of a researcher. These are precisely the three essential components of the scientific method as later defined by Roger Bacon: the sources, the approaches, and the researcher.
Before we delve further into the mechanisms of developing sciences and disciplines, we need to understand some things about the position of religion towards knowledge. Not only do we say that Islam is a religion of knowledge, we also perceive its position towards intellectual investigation wherein it considers there to be no prohibition or restrictions on intellectual investigations whatsoever; anyone who wants to may investigate anything they want and attempt to understand the world as they like, and uncover what they want about God's creation in His universe. This is a guarantee for creativity and it is based on the fact that the very beginning of God’s revelation was Read in the name of your Lord who created. He created man from a clot. Read and your Lord is Most Honorable, Who taught with the pen [96: 1-4]. It has been mentioned that the first reading is a reading of existence, and the second is a reading of revelation, and they both emanate from God, the first from the domain of creation, and the second from the domain of the command: Surely His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds [7: 54]. Based on this there is no end to perceiving existence since it represents truth by virtue of its originating with God, and there is no end to perceiving revelation. The Prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him, said, "There is no end to its wonders and it does not become worn out through much repetition." (narrated by A.-Tirmidhi and Al-Darimi). There is also no contradiction between the two since they both emanate from God. This basis is confirmed in His saying Are those who know and those who do not know alike? [39: 9].
However, the use of information must fall within the moral bounds for application, which are taken from the goals of human beings in the world: to worship, to engage in positive development, and to purify the self. These prevent the use of what we have arrived at for things that disagrees with Divine commandments and prohibitions, or in ways that would invalidate the comprehensive goals of religion. Accordingly, we become constructive, rather than destructive people. These bounds of application are of the utmost importance since they are the only guarantee for this positive development.
The distinction between the freedom of investigation to arrive at correct knowledge and restricting applications of this knowledge in order to arrive at positive development has confused many people despite its clarity and reaffirmation.
It is a fact that disciplines of knowledge posses a comprehensive conceptualization that is represented in the form of a complete instructional process for the conveyance of information, and education for the inculcation of values, and vocational training to acquire skills. All of this cannot be separated, and if it is, we will lose the "manual of operations," so to speak. The loss of the manual of operations leads to confusion and disorder. It seems that we have indeed lost this manual of operations in many spheres of our life today, not just our intellectual lives, but also in our political, social, and religious lives.
It is also a fact that there is a difference between religious knowledge and religiosity. The first is carried out by a group of intellectuals and has its sources and methods. The educational process, as we indicated earlier, has essential integral aspects that must be complemented by its five basic elements: a student, a teacher, a method, a text, and an intellectual environment. The second, religiosity, is required of all those who fall under legal obligation for the purpose of ordering their relationship with themselves, the universe, and God.
Another fact is that there is a difference between jurisprudence (fiqh) and intellectual contemplation (fikr). The subject of jurisprudence is he actions of those who are legally obligated. Jurisprudence is concerned with describing the actions of the legally obligated as something to be engaged in or abstained from and classifies them as permissible (halal) or forbidden (haram) implementing five juristic rulings: the obligatory (al-wajib), the recommended (al-mandub), the prohibited (al-haram), the disliked (al-makruh), and the permissible (al-mubah). As for intellectual contemplation, it deals with the relative, complex, and ever-changing lived reality. People use this to order informational matters as premises in order to arrive at an unknown as a conclusion. The intellectual process is the bridge between Islamic law and the world. For this reason it requires spheres of knowledge that are continuously being generated and renewed since the nature of the reality that we are trying to apprehend is highly complex and variable.
If all of the aforementioned is agreed upon, then the Islamic tradition has laid down what are called "the ten bases." These are the elements that must be taken into consideration when disciplines of knowledge are generated, namely: the definition of the discipline, its subject, its originator, its relation to other disciplines, the disciplines upon which it draws, its rulings and the issues with which it deals, its merit, the ruling of studying it, its name, and the fruits and benefits to be gained through it. These ten elements represent a entrance to any discipline that an intellectual seeking to establish a discipline of knowledge can ascertain as a beginning towards the independence of the discipline or its creation. So how is this done?
Until next week…
______________________________________________
[1] The orginal wording in the Arabic uses the word tawatur.
[2] Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Ar-Radd 'ala man Akhlada ila al-Ard wa Jahila anna al-Ijtihad fi Kull 'Asr Fard (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, 1983), 169
[3] ibid., 181
______________________________________________
Islamic Discourse
Rose El-Yousef
2 of 3
A CALL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DISCIPLINE THAT WOULD BRING BACK THE GREAT MUJTAHIDS AND BRING ABOUT THE INTELLECTUAL DEBATE THAT STIMULATES MINDS
At the end of the previous article we mentioned the “ten bases” which are particular to every intellectual discipline. The Islamic tradition has laid down what are referred to as the ten bases so that students may enquire about them and by so doing be drawn towards that discipline, or to know that which needs to be known. Additionally, these are the same elements that must be taken into consideration when generating new disciplines.
Some have put these bases into verse for young students to memorize in order to create in them this kind of aspiration that has diminished and become restricted to repetition and recitation without establishing new disciplines and continuing the intellectual process.
Whoever desires an art should first present
a defined discipline, followed by a subject
its originator, its relation, and its sources of derivation
its merit, and its findings
its name, its benefits, and its ruling
Those are ten means to the end
Some have confined themselves to a few
But those who know them all triumph
These ten bases are: defining the discipline, its subject, its originator, its relation to other disciplines, the disciplines from which it is derived, its rulings and the issues with which it deals, its merit, the ruling of studying it, its name, and its fruits and benefits. These ten bases represent a gateway to any discipline that prompts the student to aspire to study and acquire it. They are also the same bases that an intellectual desiring to establish a new discipline can define as a first step to gaining independence for it or creating it.
Those who would like an example according to which we can generate a discipline to serve Islam and Muslims may begin with one that can be called Islamic Discourse (al-khitab al-Islami). There is no greater need than the need for this discipline to be studied by those who give sermons, teachers, lay-preachers, muftis, and religious leaders whom people take as role models. They would realize how to deal with people, and they would understand their problems and the appropriate manner in which to approach them. We often hear criticisms of many preachers and of the confusion that has engulfed satellite television channels and the media in dealing with religion. Had a discipline like this existed with the characteristics that we will explain, it would have served as a reference and a measure by which the correct and the incorrect could be judged; it would have been a regulator preventing deviation, shortcomings, and faults. It would also have served as the impetus for the continuous exemplary execution of one’s duties, the rewards of which would be reaped at all times, God willing.
Intellectual disciplines have different subjects. The subject of a discipline is the subject whose foundational elements are being investigated; the matter (al-masa’il) of the discipline is made up of the subject and an appropriate description of it. The matter of the discipline is the complete sentence as it has been defined in Arabic in the field of grammar and elsewhere. A complete sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate, or a verb and a subject. Both of these kinds of sentences [1] are the same in indicating a complete sentence from which the listener understands that which was intended by the speaker. It is for this reason that the rhetoricians and logicians consider them to be one. The rhetoricians call the two essential elements of a sentence the musnad and the musnad ilayh, while logicians call them the mawdu' (antecedent) and the mahmul (complement).
The subject of medicine is the human body from the perspective of health and illness. Accordingly, the human body is the subject, and the states of health and illness that it experiences along with their means of treatment and their causes represent the predicate, which comprises the complete sentence of the discipline of medicine. The human body, then, is the musnad ilayh, the subject of a nominal sentence or a verb, so it is the mawdu’, and that by which information about it is provided is al-musnad, a predicate or the subject of a verb, so it is the mahmul, meaning that it is the mahmul of that mawdu’. So statements like “The human body becomes ill due to microbes and gets well through medicine,” make up the discipline.
Similarly, the subject of the discipline of jurisprudence (fiqh) is the actions of a legally obligated person such prayer, zakat, or even theft and murder. The ruling represents the predicate. We say, “Prayer is obligatory,” “ Stealing is forbidden,” and “Idle folly is disliked,” and these sentences are the subject matter of the discipline of jurisprudence.
What, then, is the subject of Islamic Discourse? We can call it conveying the message (tabligh al-da'wah). Here we need to define the concept of conveyance as being comprised of three parts: the speaker, the listener, and the message: discourse, or speech. We should begin by elucidating the characteristics of the speaker, the conditions that they should satisfy, the knowledge with which they should be equipped, the realities that they should comprehend, the tools that they should possess, and the approaches, methods, sources, and operations that they should employ. Next, we can elucidate the listener and their types, their levels, the means of communication that are appropriate for them, the criteria for measuring the achievement of goals with them, and the media through which they can be contacted and which are appropriate for different kinds of listeners. We then move on to the address and study its form, its content, its types, its styles, its language, its register, its reference, its valuation, its diversity, its development, and its composition. We then move on to the study of the concept of da’wah (the message) and its particularities that give the address a different flavor, a quality that may not be present in other forms of address; how to link words with deeds and a good example; the difficulties that surround this, and the ways in which to solve, deal with, or prevent them.
All this requires other disciplines from which we can derive our new discipline, such as communications, information media, rhetoric, the disciplines of the shari'ah, linguistics, semantics, content analysis, and field research, with the aid of some of the tools used in the Humanities and Social Sciences, such as observation, analysis, tables, graphs, and illustrations. Available sources of information must also be utilized, such as the Internet, satellite television channels, and effective techniques in crowd Psychology, and the Psychology of Communication.
If we define a discipline, know its subject matter, determine the disciplines from which it is derived, conceptualize an index of the topics that it addresses, and assign it a name, this enables us to deal with its results, fruits, implications, and how to use it. It must also be established in an open form that allows for additions to be made, its development and renewal, and the generation of other disciplines from it. This way the discipline is independent and we can stand on solid ground calling to God the Almighty who said: Say, 'This is my way; I call unto God standing on sure knowledge, I and those who follow me. Holy is God, and I am not one of those who associate divinities with God [10:108].
In fulfillment of this verse, and in order to call to God with profound insight, we must do so in accordance with a discipline which is taught to all those who speak of Islam in the public sphere so it may be a reliance for them. This is the purpose of my calling for the generating of disciplines: so that Islamic civilization can return to its previous state of contributing, and so we do not have to hear some say that Islamic civilization is no more.
We will find a place for the discipline of Islamic Discourse between the social sciences on the one hand and the Islamic sciences on the other. Then we will understand the benefits of this discipline and that its study is a fard kifaya (communal obligation) that could develop into a fard ayn (individual obligation) for all those who speak of and transmit religion.
The originator of the discipline will be the first person to write in it, and if a group write in it at the same time, there will be a dispute as to who among them was the first. We will return to the sweetness of intellectual discussions and beneficial disagreements that used to stimulate minds, nurture egos to accept other opinions, and train students and scholars to research, organize evidence, and explain their evidentiary significance. It would also bring the Muslim intellect out of the state of imitation and stagnation engulfing it and the intellectual crisis through which it is going and plunge it and into another kind of depth of understanding, an awareness of its surroundings, and the capacity to bring about conditions for the return of the great mujtahids capable of presenting what they understand logically and with evidence that everyone accepts; even if they do not take it as a path for themselves, they will respect the methodology and confirm its veracity regardless of the results or people’s differing approaches.
Disciplines are not generated completed. Even the discipline of prosody (al-‘urud) by which Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi systematized Arabic poetry was not complete when it was generated. Although it was almost complete, we saw that al-Akhfash added another meter, Bahr al-Mutadarak, and scholars of this science added other poetic meters as well; it is true that the Arabs did not use them, and none of their poetry has been related to us in these meters, but it was added to the discipline and expanded the meaning of poetry as is described by al-Damanhuri in his book, Al-Kafi fi al-‘Urud wa al-Qawafi. Even Ahmad Shawqi, the Prince of Poets, devised new poetic meters that had not existed before.
The generation of disciplines of knowledge is an appropriate approach to practically overcoming this deadly crisis through which our community is passing. One of the approaches of the righteous has been to turn to knowledge in all of its forms when the Tatars attacked Muslim lands and some cities were under the rule of the Crusaders. Let us study the example of Imam al-Nawawi who worked twenty hours a day to preserve knowledge and pass it on to those who followed him, to the extent that he did not sleep on his side for two years, he never married because of his preoccupation with knowledge, and he died at the young age of less than 45 according to the Hijri calendar. Let us also recall the examples of al-Nuwayri in Nihayat al-Arb, al-Qalqashandi in Subh al-A’asha, Ibn Manthur in Lisan al-‘Arab, and others who wrote encyclopedias, and how they faced tyranny, aggression, and the changes of time.
Until next week…
______________________________________________
[1] i.e. the nominal and verbal sentence (trans.).
______________________________________________
Rose El-Yousef
2 of 3
A CALL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DISCIPLINE THAT WOULD BRING BACK THE GREAT MUJTAHIDS AND BRING ABOUT THE INTELLECTUAL DEBATE THAT STIMULATES MINDS
At the end of the previous article we mentioned the “ten bases” which are particular to every intellectual discipline. The Islamic tradition has laid down what are referred to as the ten bases so that students may enquire about them and by so doing be drawn towards that discipline, or to know that which needs to be known. Additionally, these are the same elements that must be taken into consideration when generating new disciplines.
Some have put these bases into verse for young students to memorize in order to create in them this kind of aspiration that has diminished and become restricted to repetition and recitation without establishing new disciplines and continuing the intellectual process.
Whoever desires an art should first present
a defined discipline, followed by a subject
its originator, its relation, and its sources of derivation
its merit, and its findings
its name, its benefits, and its ruling
Those are ten means to the end
Some have confined themselves to a few
But those who know them all triumph
These ten bases are: defining the discipline, its subject, its originator, its relation to other disciplines, the disciplines from which it is derived, its rulings and the issues with which it deals, its merit, the ruling of studying it, its name, and its fruits and benefits. These ten bases represent a gateway to any discipline that prompts the student to aspire to study and acquire it. They are also the same bases that an intellectual desiring to establish a new discipline can define as a first step to gaining independence for it or creating it.
Those who would like an example according to which we can generate a discipline to serve Islam and Muslims may begin with one that can be called Islamic Discourse (al-khitab al-Islami). There is no greater need than the need for this discipline to be studied by those who give sermons, teachers, lay-preachers, muftis, and religious leaders whom people take as role models. They would realize how to deal with people, and they would understand their problems and the appropriate manner in which to approach them. We often hear criticisms of many preachers and of the confusion that has engulfed satellite television channels and the media in dealing with religion. Had a discipline like this existed with the characteristics that we will explain, it would have served as a reference and a measure by which the correct and the incorrect could be judged; it would have been a regulator preventing deviation, shortcomings, and faults. It would also have served as the impetus for the continuous exemplary execution of one’s duties, the rewards of which would be reaped at all times, God willing.
Intellectual disciplines have different subjects. The subject of a discipline is the subject whose foundational elements are being investigated; the matter (al-masa’il) of the discipline is made up of the subject and an appropriate description of it. The matter of the discipline is the complete sentence as it has been defined in Arabic in the field of grammar and elsewhere. A complete sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate, or a verb and a subject. Both of these kinds of sentences [1] are the same in indicating a complete sentence from which the listener understands that which was intended by the speaker. It is for this reason that the rhetoricians and logicians consider them to be one. The rhetoricians call the two essential elements of a sentence the musnad and the musnad ilayh, while logicians call them the mawdu' (antecedent) and the mahmul (complement).
The subject of medicine is the human body from the perspective of health and illness. Accordingly, the human body is the subject, and the states of health and illness that it experiences along with their means of treatment and their causes represent the predicate, which comprises the complete sentence of the discipline of medicine. The human body, then, is the musnad ilayh, the subject of a nominal sentence or a verb, so it is the mawdu’, and that by which information about it is provided is al-musnad, a predicate or the subject of a verb, so it is the mahmul, meaning that it is the mahmul of that mawdu’. So statements like “The human body becomes ill due to microbes and gets well through medicine,” make up the discipline.
Similarly, the subject of the discipline of jurisprudence (fiqh) is the actions of a legally obligated person such prayer, zakat, or even theft and murder. The ruling represents the predicate. We say, “Prayer is obligatory,” “ Stealing is forbidden,” and “Idle folly is disliked,” and these sentences are the subject matter of the discipline of jurisprudence.
What, then, is the subject of Islamic Discourse? We can call it conveying the message (tabligh al-da'wah). Here we need to define the concept of conveyance as being comprised of three parts: the speaker, the listener, and the message: discourse, or speech. We should begin by elucidating the characteristics of the speaker, the conditions that they should satisfy, the knowledge with which they should be equipped, the realities that they should comprehend, the tools that they should possess, and the approaches, methods, sources, and operations that they should employ. Next, we can elucidate the listener and their types, their levels, the means of communication that are appropriate for them, the criteria for measuring the achievement of goals with them, and the media through which they can be contacted and which are appropriate for different kinds of listeners. We then move on to the address and study its form, its content, its types, its styles, its language, its register, its reference, its valuation, its diversity, its development, and its composition. We then move on to the study of the concept of da’wah (the message) and its particularities that give the address a different flavor, a quality that may not be present in other forms of address; how to link words with deeds and a good example; the difficulties that surround this, and the ways in which to solve, deal with, or prevent them.
All this requires other disciplines from which we can derive our new discipline, such as communications, information media, rhetoric, the disciplines of the shari'ah, linguistics, semantics, content analysis, and field research, with the aid of some of the tools used in the Humanities and Social Sciences, such as observation, analysis, tables, graphs, and illustrations. Available sources of information must also be utilized, such as the Internet, satellite television channels, and effective techniques in crowd Psychology, and the Psychology of Communication.
If we define a discipline, know its subject matter, determine the disciplines from which it is derived, conceptualize an index of the topics that it addresses, and assign it a name, this enables us to deal with its results, fruits, implications, and how to use it. It must also be established in an open form that allows for additions to be made, its development and renewal, and the generation of other disciplines from it. This way the discipline is independent and we can stand on solid ground calling to God the Almighty who said: Say, 'This is my way; I call unto God standing on sure knowledge, I and those who follow me. Holy is God, and I am not one of those who associate divinities with God [10:108].
In fulfillment of this verse, and in order to call to God with profound insight, we must do so in accordance with a discipline which is taught to all those who speak of Islam in the public sphere so it may be a reliance for them. This is the purpose of my calling for the generating of disciplines: so that Islamic civilization can return to its previous state of contributing, and so we do not have to hear some say that Islamic civilization is no more.
We will find a place for the discipline of Islamic Discourse between the social sciences on the one hand and the Islamic sciences on the other. Then we will understand the benefits of this discipline and that its study is a fard kifaya (communal obligation) that could develop into a fard ayn (individual obligation) for all those who speak of and transmit religion.
The originator of the discipline will be the first person to write in it, and if a group write in it at the same time, there will be a dispute as to who among them was the first. We will return to the sweetness of intellectual discussions and beneficial disagreements that used to stimulate minds, nurture egos to accept other opinions, and train students and scholars to research, organize evidence, and explain their evidentiary significance. It would also bring the Muslim intellect out of the state of imitation and stagnation engulfing it and the intellectual crisis through which it is going and plunge it and into another kind of depth of understanding, an awareness of its surroundings, and the capacity to bring about conditions for the return of the great mujtahids capable of presenting what they understand logically and with evidence that everyone accepts; even if they do not take it as a path for themselves, they will respect the methodology and confirm its veracity regardless of the results or people’s differing approaches.
Disciplines are not generated completed. Even the discipline of prosody (al-‘urud) by which Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi systematized Arabic poetry was not complete when it was generated. Although it was almost complete, we saw that al-Akhfash added another meter, Bahr al-Mutadarak, and scholars of this science added other poetic meters as well; it is true that the Arabs did not use them, and none of their poetry has been related to us in these meters, but it was added to the discipline and expanded the meaning of poetry as is described by al-Damanhuri in his book, Al-Kafi fi al-‘Urud wa al-Qawafi. Even Ahmad Shawqi, the Prince of Poets, devised new poetic meters that had not existed before.
The generation of disciplines of knowledge is an appropriate approach to practically overcoming this deadly crisis through which our community is passing. One of the approaches of the righteous has been to turn to knowledge in all of its forms when the Tatars attacked Muslim lands and some cities were under the rule of the Crusaders. Let us study the example of Imam al-Nawawi who worked twenty hours a day to preserve knowledge and pass it on to those who followed him, to the extent that he did not sleep on his side for two years, he never married because of his preoccupation with knowledge, and he died at the young age of less than 45 according to the Hijri calendar. Let us also recall the examples of al-Nuwayri in Nihayat al-Arb, al-Qalqashandi in Subh al-A’asha, Ibn Manthur in Lisan al-‘Arab, and others who wrote encyclopedias, and how they faced tyranny, aggression, and the changes of time.
Until next week…
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[1] i.e. the nominal and verbal sentence (trans.).
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When Jihad Turns From Struggle To
Murder
Rose El-Yousef
3 of 3
Are Muslims truly in need of an intellectual discipline that we can call Islamic Discourse (al-Khitab al-Islami)? My answer is yes, they are in need of it due to the requirements of their existence and the preservation of their identity in this world that has become one village. Through means of transportation, communication, and modern technology, this global village has lead to a perceived proximity and mutual influence. This has occurred to the extent that the barriers between internal and external affairs have nearly vanished. We have seen that the arguments for the occupation of Iraq and the threat to occupy other lands are the actions of what goes on internally. It is no longer praiseworthy or beneficial, however, to hold onto the belief that it is simply an internal affair.
Since we reject this principle, which is used by those with power to impose their colonial hegemony and gain economic benefits, we must work on that which will transform our current state for the sake of God, so that God may look upon us with a Merciful gaze, transform our state, and grant us success in that which He loves and which pleases Him. Lo! God does not change the condition of a people until they (first) change that which is in their hearts; and if God wills misfortune for a people there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him [13:11].
I attended a conference in Kuwait held by the Faculty of Shari’ah and Islamic Studies entitled “The Islamic Discourse in the Sea of Events and Developments.” The conference was on May 17th and 18th of 2004 and I presented a study on the principles of this topic and called for the establishment of a new discipline called The Islamic Discourse. The scholars at the conference approved of this suggestion and added their recommendations. This illustrates the importance of this appeal and the necessity of adopting it without delay and adding it to the curriculum in the faculties of Shari’ah at Islamic universities, especially al-Azhar University. There is also a need for scholars to collaborate in its composition, its enrichment, and deriving it from several other disciplines so that it may be elucidated and gain a base of support.
In establishing a field for this new discipline one may be aided by the other studies that were presented at this conference. The conference attendees included Prof. Ahmed Omar Hashem, former president of Al-Azhar University and member of the Assembly of Islamic Research; Prof. Nabil Ghunaym, professor at the Faculty of Dar-al-Ulum, Cairo University; and Prof. Ibrahim Abdulrahim, professor at the Faculty of Dar-al-Ulum, Cairo University; from Sudan Prof. Issam Al-Bashir, Minister of Endowments at the time; and many scholars from Switzerland, France, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, as well as scholars from different nationalities from the Faculty of Shari’ah in Kuwait. In particular I mention Prof. Ahmed Gaballah, Dean of the European College for Islamic Studies in Paris, whose paper was titled “The Openness of the Islamic Discourse and the Requirements of the Contemporary Period” in which he emphasized the importance of the Islamic discourse in the field of Human Relations.
This paper reminded me of our late teacher Prof. Mahir ‘Ilaysh who, while teaching the subject of Human Relations, told us of how he went to the United States to get a PhD in this field, at a time when less than thirty years had passed since that subject’s inception. He went to his university’s library thinking that he would find one or two books, maybe ten, which he could finish reading, get his PhD, and return to Egypt in six months. He asked the librarian for the books on Human Relations and told him to bring him all of them, no matter how many there were. The librarian took him to one of the floors of the library, which was the shape of a large circle around which a car could drive, and said, “All of the books you see in front of you from the floor to the ceiling, the length of this whole floor, are the all on Human Relations.” Dr. Mahir ‘Ilaysh did not tell us this story in order to entertain us, nor did he tell it so that our jaws would drop in astonishment and amazement at knowledge that has no end; he told it to inculcate in us a skill that would be the basis for a desire for knowledge; a love of reading, of researching, of writing, and of knowledge. May God have mercy on the professor, he was a believer in God and His prophet, and he loved Egypt passionately.
Prof. Ahmed Gaballah then discussed the multiplicity of modes of discourse and the particular characteristics of the Islamic discourse. He mentioned that it is a discourse that achieves clear conveyance. It has the characteristics of wisdom and kindness. It considers the nature of the one who hears it, adheres to the principles of freedom and balance, avoids stirring up animosity and negative reactions, and it maintains humility and is not distressed by being opposed or questioned. It is an open discourse because it believes in the reality of differences between people, in the right of others to hold their own beliefs to be correct and to undertake the duty of bearing witness to them in front of people. It knows that it is in the age of open media and globalization and that this openness requires discourse to spring from the conviction of the speaker and the readiness to comprehend and understand the argument of those who hold differing opinions. One must also benefit from connecting with the other through self-examination, correcting mistakes, and making known points of agreement with those who differ.
From this he arrived at the necessity of specialization, depth, and distancing oneself from generalizations and superficiality. He arrived at combining a basis in tradition with renewal. He arrived at caring for the human aspect in the Islamic discourse. He arrived at courageously undertaking controversial issues, preferring logic based on rational persuasion over rhetoric, combining idealism with realism, emphasizing the educational, spiritual, and civilizational aspects of the Islamic discourse, renewing both the form and content of religious preaching, and benefiting from the techniques and means of the contemporary discourse. The most important point of all is to submit the Islamic discourse to constant reevaluation. In regard to this last point he affirmed that describing this discourse as being Islamic does not place it above continuous criticism which leads to improving its articulation, reworking its order, and working to correct its trajectory if something occurs to discredit or limit it. This is a point of utmost importance that has been overlooked by many of those who have set themselves up as proponents of Islamic discourse. It has even been overlooked by those who have criticized them in that even the critics themselves have felt that they were opposing Islam itself by objecting to its formulation and rhetoric. This is relevant since, as Prof. Ahmed Gaballah put it in his paper, “An idea being true does not necessitate that its articulation be correct or its presentation be good. In fact, an idea may be extremely strong, but its expression and articulation may be so poor that the idea loses its strength.”
Then I went to London with a group of scholars and intellectuals from June 6th to 14th 2004 to discuss the image of Islam and Muslims with intellectuals, politicians, and social scientists who were interested in this issue. I grew even more convinced of the necessity of establishing a discipline which can help solve these particular and complex issues that bewilder the West and has made it, due to its inherited culture which clashed with Muslim countries, confused and lost as to how to interact with even their own Muslim citizens.
I found the problem of third generation Muslims whose grandparents emigrated from the Indian Sub-Continent, and elsewhere, and participated in the industrial revolution and whose children took part in the wars undertaken by the British. Since their birth these Muslims have known no other homeland other than this country. In spite of all that they have learned and been raised with, however, they go and commit suicide operations. The English mind cannot fathom this puzzle. Some people tell them that Islam is the cause of this because it is a religion of conflict; Bernard Lewis says that the terrorists are implementing Islam, but he does not mention the truth; that they have departed drastically from Islam. Non-Muslims are confused because they have known Muslims to be peaceful citizens, then all of a sudden this kind of person emerges and Lewis and others like him are ready with these false explanations. There are even those who call themselves Muslims who are confused and publish things here and there that show there is a kind of contradiction in their thought.
A discipline of Islamic Discourse will confirm many conceptions that can accurately explain this situation, show it to be a state of deficiency and clarify this deficiency without confusion. A discipline of Islamic Discourse will affirm the concept of community (ummah), but it will also confirm the concept of an authoritative reference, the concept of specialization, and the difference between religion and religious practice. This discipline will affirm the concept of necessary preconditions without which one cannot undertake a specific action. Prayer, for example, is not valid without ablutions, even if one were to pray one hundred times, nor is it valid unless it is directed towards the Kaaba, even if one were to pray one thousand times, nor is it valid if performed before the time established for it by the Shari’ah. Jihad is only valid if undertaken under recognized leadership, and when this leadership is lost there is no jihad and it becomes murder rather than struggle, even if those carrying it out claim that it is for the sake of God. The loss of an authoritative reference and an understanding of necessary preconditions is the outward cause of this situation along with the presence of the concept of community in the minds of these young people. This concept of community is a correct concept, but it was not taught to them as being restricted by the necessary conditions of working within it, so the scales fell out of balance in their hands and they caused ruin rather than creating good.
Khabbab ibn al-Art (may God be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) and complained to him asking him for victory. Khabbab said, “We complained to the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) when he was resting on his cloak in the shade of the Kaaba saying, ‘Will you not seek victory for us? Will you not pray for us?’’’ In Ahmad’s narration it says, “The Messenger of God’s face turned red, his color changed.” “He replied, ‘Before your time a man would be placed in a hole that was dug for him and a saw would be brought and placed on his head which would be separated into two and he would be combed with the steel combs through the flesh and bone, but this would not turn him away from him religion. By God, this matter will not end until a rider can travel from Sana’a to Hadramout without fearing anything but God and the wolves who attack his sheep, but you seek to rush things.’” Narrated by al-Bukhari.
It has been established in the Sunna of the Prophet that ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Auf and some of his companions came to the Prophet in Mecca (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) and said, “O Messenger of God, we had glory and honor when we were polytheists, but when we believed we became meek and humiliated.” He replied, “I have been commanded to have compassion and forgiveness, so do not fight.” Narrated by al-Nisa’i.
As if addressing ignorant and hot tempered people whom passion has blinded from obedience to God, He says in the Quran, And if it had not been for believing men and believing women, whom you knew not - lest ye should tread them under foot and thus incur guilt for them unknowingly; that God might bring into His mercy whom He will [48:25].
Those who are confused by a contradiction that they perceive between the Quranic texts that affirm jihad and others that affirm forbearance, forgiveness, pardon, and accepting the other, are not aware of the conditions for each of them. Looking at each from the appropriate angle makes it a difference of kind, not of opposition.
We again affirm the necessity of establishing this discipline in the hopes that over the next twenty years we will see books written in it that fill an entire floor of a large library, or can be downloaded on a CD-Rom like the encyclopedias and reference materials of other disciplines…Amen.
Rose El-Yousef
3 of 3
Are Muslims truly in need of an intellectual discipline that we can call Islamic Discourse (al-Khitab al-Islami)? My answer is yes, they are in need of it due to the requirements of their existence and the preservation of their identity in this world that has become one village. Through means of transportation, communication, and modern technology, this global village has lead to a perceived proximity and mutual influence. This has occurred to the extent that the barriers between internal and external affairs have nearly vanished. We have seen that the arguments for the occupation of Iraq and the threat to occupy other lands are the actions of what goes on internally. It is no longer praiseworthy or beneficial, however, to hold onto the belief that it is simply an internal affair.
Since we reject this principle, which is used by those with power to impose their colonial hegemony and gain economic benefits, we must work on that which will transform our current state for the sake of God, so that God may look upon us with a Merciful gaze, transform our state, and grant us success in that which He loves and which pleases Him. Lo! God does not change the condition of a people until they (first) change that which is in their hearts; and if God wills misfortune for a people there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him [13:11].
I attended a conference in Kuwait held by the Faculty of Shari’ah and Islamic Studies entitled “The Islamic Discourse in the Sea of Events and Developments.” The conference was on May 17th and 18th of 2004 and I presented a study on the principles of this topic and called for the establishment of a new discipline called The Islamic Discourse. The scholars at the conference approved of this suggestion and added their recommendations. This illustrates the importance of this appeal and the necessity of adopting it without delay and adding it to the curriculum in the faculties of Shari’ah at Islamic universities, especially al-Azhar University. There is also a need for scholars to collaborate in its composition, its enrichment, and deriving it from several other disciplines so that it may be elucidated and gain a base of support.
In establishing a field for this new discipline one may be aided by the other studies that were presented at this conference. The conference attendees included Prof. Ahmed Omar Hashem, former president of Al-Azhar University and member of the Assembly of Islamic Research; Prof. Nabil Ghunaym, professor at the Faculty of Dar-al-Ulum, Cairo University; and Prof. Ibrahim Abdulrahim, professor at the Faculty of Dar-al-Ulum, Cairo University; from Sudan Prof. Issam Al-Bashir, Minister of Endowments at the time; and many scholars from Switzerland, France, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, as well as scholars from different nationalities from the Faculty of Shari’ah in Kuwait. In particular I mention Prof. Ahmed Gaballah, Dean of the European College for Islamic Studies in Paris, whose paper was titled “The Openness of the Islamic Discourse and the Requirements of the Contemporary Period” in which he emphasized the importance of the Islamic discourse in the field of Human Relations.
This paper reminded me of our late teacher Prof. Mahir ‘Ilaysh who, while teaching the subject of Human Relations, told us of how he went to the United States to get a PhD in this field, at a time when less than thirty years had passed since that subject’s inception. He went to his university’s library thinking that he would find one or two books, maybe ten, which he could finish reading, get his PhD, and return to Egypt in six months. He asked the librarian for the books on Human Relations and told him to bring him all of them, no matter how many there were. The librarian took him to one of the floors of the library, which was the shape of a large circle around which a car could drive, and said, “All of the books you see in front of you from the floor to the ceiling, the length of this whole floor, are the all on Human Relations.” Dr. Mahir ‘Ilaysh did not tell us this story in order to entertain us, nor did he tell it so that our jaws would drop in astonishment and amazement at knowledge that has no end; he told it to inculcate in us a skill that would be the basis for a desire for knowledge; a love of reading, of researching, of writing, and of knowledge. May God have mercy on the professor, he was a believer in God and His prophet, and he loved Egypt passionately.
Prof. Ahmed Gaballah then discussed the multiplicity of modes of discourse and the particular characteristics of the Islamic discourse. He mentioned that it is a discourse that achieves clear conveyance. It has the characteristics of wisdom and kindness. It considers the nature of the one who hears it, adheres to the principles of freedom and balance, avoids stirring up animosity and negative reactions, and it maintains humility and is not distressed by being opposed or questioned. It is an open discourse because it believes in the reality of differences between people, in the right of others to hold their own beliefs to be correct and to undertake the duty of bearing witness to them in front of people. It knows that it is in the age of open media and globalization and that this openness requires discourse to spring from the conviction of the speaker and the readiness to comprehend and understand the argument of those who hold differing opinions. One must also benefit from connecting with the other through self-examination, correcting mistakes, and making known points of agreement with those who differ.
From this he arrived at the necessity of specialization, depth, and distancing oneself from generalizations and superficiality. He arrived at combining a basis in tradition with renewal. He arrived at caring for the human aspect in the Islamic discourse. He arrived at courageously undertaking controversial issues, preferring logic based on rational persuasion over rhetoric, combining idealism with realism, emphasizing the educational, spiritual, and civilizational aspects of the Islamic discourse, renewing both the form and content of religious preaching, and benefiting from the techniques and means of the contemporary discourse. The most important point of all is to submit the Islamic discourse to constant reevaluation. In regard to this last point he affirmed that describing this discourse as being Islamic does not place it above continuous criticism which leads to improving its articulation, reworking its order, and working to correct its trajectory if something occurs to discredit or limit it. This is a point of utmost importance that has been overlooked by many of those who have set themselves up as proponents of Islamic discourse. It has even been overlooked by those who have criticized them in that even the critics themselves have felt that they were opposing Islam itself by objecting to its formulation and rhetoric. This is relevant since, as Prof. Ahmed Gaballah put it in his paper, “An idea being true does not necessitate that its articulation be correct or its presentation be good. In fact, an idea may be extremely strong, but its expression and articulation may be so poor that the idea loses its strength.”
Then I went to London with a group of scholars and intellectuals from June 6th to 14th 2004 to discuss the image of Islam and Muslims with intellectuals, politicians, and social scientists who were interested in this issue. I grew even more convinced of the necessity of establishing a discipline which can help solve these particular and complex issues that bewilder the West and has made it, due to its inherited culture which clashed with Muslim countries, confused and lost as to how to interact with even their own Muslim citizens.
I found the problem of third generation Muslims whose grandparents emigrated from the Indian Sub-Continent, and elsewhere, and participated in the industrial revolution and whose children took part in the wars undertaken by the British. Since their birth these Muslims have known no other homeland other than this country. In spite of all that they have learned and been raised with, however, they go and commit suicide operations. The English mind cannot fathom this puzzle. Some people tell them that Islam is the cause of this because it is a religion of conflict; Bernard Lewis says that the terrorists are implementing Islam, but he does not mention the truth; that they have departed drastically from Islam. Non-Muslims are confused because they have known Muslims to be peaceful citizens, then all of a sudden this kind of person emerges and Lewis and others like him are ready with these false explanations. There are even those who call themselves Muslims who are confused and publish things here and there that show there is a kind of contradiction in their thought.
A discipline of Islamic Discourse will confirm many conceptions that can accurately explain this situation, show it to be a state of deficiency and clarify this deficiency without confusion. A discipline of Islamic Discourse will affirm the concept of community (ummah), but it will also confirm the concept of an authoritative reference, the concept of specialization, and the difference between religion and religious practice. This discipline will affirm the concept of necessary preconditions without which one cannot undertake a specific action. Prayer, for example, is not valid without ablutions, even if one were to pray one hundred times, nor is it valid unless it is directed towards the Kaaba, even if one were to pray one thousand times, nor is it valid if performed before the time established for it by the Shari’ah. Jihad is only valid if undertaken under recognized leadership, and when this leadership is lost there is no jihad and it becomes murder rather than struggle, even if those carrying it out claim that it is for the sake of God. The loss of an authoritative reference and an understanding of necessary preconditions is the outward cause of this situation along with the presence of the concept of community in the minds of these young people. This concept of community is a correct concept, but it was not taught to them as being restricted by the necessary conditions of working within it, so the scales fell out of balance in their hands and they caused ruin rather than creating good.
Khabbab ibn al-Art (may God be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) and complained to him asking him for victory. Khabbab said, “We complained to the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) when he was resting on his cloak in the shade of the Kaaba saying, ‘Will you not seek victory for us? Will you not pray for us?’’’ In Ahmad’s narration it says, “The Messenger of God’s face turned red, his color changed.” “He replied, ‘Before your time a man would be placed in a hole that was dug for him and a saw would be brought and placed on his head which would be separated into two and he would be combed with the steel combs through the flesh and bone, but this would not turn him away from him religion. By God, this matter will not end until a rider can travel from Sana’a to Hadramout without fearing anything but God and the wolves who attack his sheep, but you seek to rush things.’” Narrated by al-Bukhari.
It has been established in the Sunna of the Prophet that ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Auf and some of his companions came to the Prophet in Mecca (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) and said, “O Messenger of God, we had glory and honor when we were polytheists, but when we believed we became meek and humiliated.” He replied, “I have been commanded to have compassion and forgiveness, so do not fight.” Narrated by al-Nisa’i.
As if addressing ignorant and hot tempered people whom passion has blinded from obedience to God, He says in the Quran, And if it had not been for believing men and believing women, whom you knew not - lest ye should tread them under foot and thus incur guilt for them unknowingly; that God might bring into His mercy whom He will [48:25].
Those who are confused by a contradiction that they perceive between the Quranic texts that affirm jihad and others that affirm forbearance, forgiveness, pardon, and accepting the other, are not aware of the conditions for each of them. Looking at each from the appropriate angle makes it a difference of kind, not of opposition.
We again affirm the necessity of establishing this discipline in the hopes that over the next twenty years we will see books written in it that fill an entire floor of a large library, or can be downloaded on a CD-Rom like the encyclopedias and reference materials of other disciplines…Amen.