Islam in Retrospect: What Went Wrong?

Islam is misunderstood by many, including by a few Muslims. For the knowledge of Islam was warped by problematic, militant renditions. These renditions rest on presuppositions and practices contrary to the teaching of revelation. They resulted from the politicization of the methodology of interpretation. For example, traditional exegesis subordinates revelation to tradition. Traditional exegesis also endorses refraining from using reason to understand revelation. To subordinate revelation to tradition is an expression of shirk, subordinating the greater to the lesser. Could persons explain better than Allah? The reluctance to engage reason to understand revelation prevents exegetes from comprehending revelation, for a person cannot understand anything without recourse to reason. The reticence to engage reason is a reflection of anti-rationalism, a radical rejection of reason, bordering on fanaticism. Islam at present is Islamism, the result of the politicization of Islam to further the political aspirations of hawkish rulers bent upon empire building. Islamism is a product of hawkish ulama, efforts to establish a paradise on the earth in the shape of the caliphate. But establishing a paradise on earth, is a secular ambition. The politicization of Islam, including the justification of repression, was enabled by the weaponization of exegesis as well as jurisprudence. The abrogation of the verses prohibiting compulsion in religion in exegesis, and the death penalty for political dissent, treated as apostasy, provided the justification for repression and transformed Islam into Islamism. The purported abrogation of verses that prohibit aggression in Islam justified the repression of dissent. The alleged abrogation of the verses of reconciliation was used to justify the propagation of Islam by the sword using jihad al-talab, or wars of aggression. But the weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence corrupted the knowledge of Islam. Efforts to re-establish the caliphate reflect a secular aspiration. Militants buttress their perspectives by recourse to warlike traditions. The politicization of Islam made the umma belligerent. It set the umma on a war path against the rest of the world, in a clash of civilizations, the dar al-Islam vs the dar al-kufr. This plunged Muslims into war with the rest of the world. In the end, Muslims were defeated because they violated the prohibition of resorting to compulsion in religion. Warlike traditions encompass the report in which the prophet allegedly requested a few persons to kill a poet who wrote unfavorable poetry about him. Extremism is also traceable to reports in which the prophet reportedly said that the blood of the kafir is halal for the believer. A different tradition asserts, God bless prophet Muhammad who was sent with the sword as a mercy to all the worlds. Through acts encouraged by hawkish misrepresentations of Islam, Islamists trigger retaliation upon all Muslims. Following extreme traditions exposes the umma to retaliation. A further example of tampering with revelation is the treatment of tradition as revelation from God. This amounts to a fabrication of revelation. Tradition as revelation from God even eclipsed the Book of Allah. For the traditionists assert that tradition judges, abrogates, and even replaces parts of revelation. Evidence of this is found in the replacement of revealed rulings on adultery, blasphemy and apostasy, by rulings from traditions. Traditional rulings prescribe the death penalty in all three cases. Revelation prescribed capital punishment in neither of these cases. This is hubris on a mass scale. With these assertions traditionists enabled man-made reports to supersede revealed rulings. By treating the reports of persons as abrogating and replacing the rulings of Allah, jurists fell into shirk. Recourse to the teaching of abrogation further corrupted the knowledge of revelation.