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
Rehabilitating Islamic Exegesis and Jurisprudence: Restoring the Epistemology of Tauhid in Islam

Rehabilitating Islamic Exegesis and Jurisprudence: Restoring the Epistemology of Tauhid in Islam

Terebessy, Leslie

Paperback

IslamGeneral EducationSocial Movements

ISBN13: 9798180758873
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 9 2026
Pages: 228
Weight: 0.68
Height: 0.48 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Islam is misunderstood by non-Muslims but also by Muslims. Within the umma, the corruption of knowledge emerged from a reticence to use reason to understand revelation and from an overreliance on tradition. The reluctance to use reason is due to the perception that using reason to understand revelation is kufr. This is a problematic perception, as revelation incessantly exhorts Muslims to use their reason. It is anti-rationalist ulama that warn us against using reason. This is a result of fanaticism. The perception that using reason to understand revelation is kufr is justified by recourse to a tradition where the prophet reportedly referred to the use of reason to express a perception regarding revelation as kufr. The reluctance to use reason is based upon the perception that revelation and reason are adversaries rather than allies. This perception rests on the presupposition that spirituality is not acquired by reason alone. According to tradition, acquiring faith requires the rejection of reason. Regrettably, the reluctance to use reason to understand revelation brought troubling results. First, the reluctance to use reason to understand revelation prevents the umma from understanding revelation. This intellectual suicide inaugurated a tradition of intellectual retardation. Second, the reduced capacity to understand revelation prevents the umma from following revelation, for no person is in a position to follow what he or she does not understand. In desperation, the umma turned to tradition. But tradition is no substitute for revelation. The reluctance to use reason enabled problematic perceptions to corrupt knowledge. The prohibition of the use of reason estranged the umma from its way of life. It gets worse. The reluctance to use reason plunged the umma into backwardness. Aggressive empires that produced better weapons eventually defeated Muslims on battlefields. Napoleon's cannons vanquished the Mamluks with their spears, and bows in the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798. This was a turning point. The backwardness in technology exposed the Muslims to subjugation by foreigners. Muslims remain in the past to this day. The turn from revelation to tradition was triggered by politics. Hawkish rulers, wishing to enlarge the empire, required a way to bypass the prohibitions of aggression in revelation. The justification for waging wars of aggression was furnished by willing ulama by treating tradition as revelation, and by recourse to hawkish traditions and the teaching of abrogation. According to this teaching, all verses of reconciliation were abrogated by verses revealed later. This presupposes the presence of contradictions in the Book of Allah. But the Book presents itself as free of contradictions. The transformation of the teaching of revelation into a teaching of war was enabled by the repression of reason or intellectual suicide. The intellectual suicide brought political suicide, wars of aggression or jihad al-talab, allegedly the sixth pillar of Islam. The retaliation in theses wars vanquished the umma. The requirement to reinterpret revelation as a teaching of war corrupted knowledge. It turned the religion of reconciliation into its reverse: a teaching of aggression. Accordingly, the knowledge of revelation requires rehabilitation. Refraining from trusting in verses because they were allegedly abrogated by traditions or verses that contradict represents an expression of kufr. Treating tradition as equal to revelation is an expression of shirk. Permitting rulings from traditions to abrogate and replace revealed rulings, as transpired with rulings on apostasy and adultery, is an expression of juristic shirk. Renewal requires restoring the proper relationship not just between revelation and tradition, but also between reason and tradition. It also requires the de-sacralization of tradition and the affirmation of the pre-eminence of revelation in relation to all tradition.

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