Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Permitting the Prohibited and Prohibiting the Permissible: Rethinking Islamic Law

Permitting the Prohibited and Prohibiting the Permissible: Rethinking Islamic Law

Terebessy, Leslie

Paperback

IslamGeneral Education

ISBN13: 9798386388652
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 9 2023
Pages: 306
Weight: 0.82
Height: 0.76 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Muslims are experiencing political turbulence. Under the influence of politics, they turned from revelation to tradition. They became traditional and political. Rulers craved a justification of wars of aggression to enlarge the empire. But wars of aggression are prohibited in the Book of Allah. Accordingly they turned to traditions. They engaged bellicose jurists for the task. As the jurists did not find a justification for wars of aggression in revelation, they turned to tradition. The ulama justified wars of aggression by transforming the teaching of revelation into an agenda for war. The transformation was expedited by the weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence. The turn from revelation to tradition entailed a break from revelation as well as from tradition. The reorientation from revelation to tradition triggered far-reaching repercussions. A tradition-centric paradigm superseded the revelation-centric epistemological paradigm. But that the tradition-centric paradigm is tainted by perceptions that contradict the teaching of revelation. The reorientation was triggered by the emergence of authoritarian rule. This did not bode well for the umma. The reorientation brought catastrophes. For tradition does not guide as well as revelation. The turn from revelation to traditions was assisted by the repression of reason and buttressed by the recording of traditions. The repression of reason, unfortunately, caused a misunderstanding of the Book of Allah. The treatment of tradition as revelation in turn brought the teaching of dual revelation. Because of the reticence to engage reason to understand revelation, verses in the Book of Allah struck exegetes as unclear, ' insufficiently detailed, and contradictory. The repression of reason by Muslim tradition ensured that revelation would be misunderstood. For following the Book requires understanding the Book. Attaining knowledge in turn requires the engagement of reason. Reason is gift from Allah. To reject the blessing of reason reveals ingratitude, a form of kufr. The fear of reason precipitated the extermination of 5,000 rationalists by Musa al-Hadi during the mihna or Inquisition of 786. Traditional Islam was established by force rather than arguments. The misunderstanding of revelation was exacerbated by treating tradition as a furqan of revelation. This is reflected in the perceptions that tradition judges revelation, and that revelation requires tradition more than tradition requires revelation. But treating tradition as the furqan of revelation reverses the relationship between revelation and tradition and subordinates revelation to tradition. The repression of reason enabled the emergence of problematic perceptions. These encompass the perception that revelation is in parts unclear, incomplete, and incoherent. They also encompass the perception that tradition is revelation and a root of legislation. These perceptions produced troubling effects. The allegation that tradition is revelation embedded scriptural shirk in exegesis. The perception that traditions could abrogate and replace parts of revelation embedded juristic shirk in jurisprudence. The tainting of the epistemology of theology by scriptural and juristic shirk corrupted knowledge and warped the penal code. The death penalties for blasphemy, apostasy and adultery, were incorporated into Islamic law without endorsement in revelation. These punishments embedded extremism into the law. The punishments were drawn from tradition rather than revelation. They result in injustice and impart to Islam a reputation for cruelty. The shirk at the foundation of the exegesis of revelation renders the knowledge brought by traditional exegesis and jurisprudence unreliable. Thus, requires reconstruction and rehabilitation. The rehabilitation of knowledge requires a reaffirmation of the preeminence of revelation in relation to all tradition. It also requires a return to a rational interpretation of revelation.

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