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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
Rethinking the Repression of Reason in Muslim Tradition: Redressing the Paralysis of the Muslim Mind

Rethinking the Repression of Reason in Muslim Tradition: Redressing the Paralysis of the Muslim Mind

Terebessy, Leslie

Paperback

IslamCollege GuidesGeneral Sociology

ISBN13: 9798879796551
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 16 2024
Pages: 268
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The umma is in trauma. The umma is in trauma because it exchanged the Book of Allah for books of traditions, presented as revelations from Allah, equal to and even a part of the Book of Allah. These are far-fetched assertions, reflecting an unwarranted reverence for the prophet. Treating traditions as revelation equal to and a part of the Book is an expression of shirk or scriptural shirk. Allah possesses no partners. His revelations have no partners either. The treatment of tradition as revelation from Allah vastly expanded the meaning of revelation, corrupting it in the process. It enabled a reinterpretation of revelation to justify territorial expansion of the empire by hawkish rulers. The reinterpretation fabricated a justification for unlawful wars of aggression. It rendered permissible what Allah prohibited. It corrupted the teaching of revelation past recognition. It transformed a teaching of peace into a religion of war, as Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi, the self-appointed caliph of the terrorist ISIS called it. The reinterpretation corrupted knowledge and drew the umma into a string of unprovoked, unlawful wars, which eventually ensured its defeat on every battlefield. For Allah does not guide wrongdoers. To follow traditions rather than revelation is to treat traditions as better than the Book of Allah. Which person guides better than Allah? Allah said He does not alter the state of people until they change what is in themselves (Q, 13: 11). The condition of the umma changed. The umma was preeminent in the past. At present it is in trauma. Why? The Book of Allah was not enough for the umma. It wanted more. It turned from revelation to tradition. But it did not get more, except for more trouble. It squandered what it possessed and ended up with less. It threw the Book of Allah behind its back and followed traditions. This was a relapse into the ways of the predecessors. This was the reason for the umma's downfall. It betrayed itself. Allah did not harm them but they harmed themselves. The reorientation from revelation to tradition was triggered by the need to find a religious justification for waging unlawful wars of expansion. As no justification of wars of aggression exists in revelation, hawkish rulers and their accomplices among the preachers turned to tradition. The turn required and was expedited by the repression of reason. The repression of reason enabled tradition to engineer an epistemological coup d'état, to usurp the place of revelation. The coup corrupted the knowledge of revelation and triggered fitna. The turn from revelation to tradition was justified by the perception that tradition, too, was revelation. This rested upon the unwarranted presupposition according to which everything the prophet uttered was revelation from Allah. But this perception is problematic. From then, matters went from bad to worse. Jurists did not pause at treating tradition as revelation (wahy). They would treat tradition as tanzil, too, or what Allah sent down. But traditions are not the words of Allah. They are not the verbatim words of the prophet, either. Traditions are paraphrases of paraphrases of what Muhammad reportedly said or did. They are not verbatim. They are hearsay. To treat the words of mere persons as revelation reflects a failure to differentiate the teachings of Allah from the teachings of persons. The traditional ulama persisted in the promotion of tradition at the expense of revelation until tradition surpassed revelation. Tradition would be treated as a judge of revelation, too. This reversed the relationship between revelation and tradition. Revelation was relegated under the jurisdiction of traditions. The Book of Allah was subordinated to the authority of tradition. This reflected a breakdown of reason. Reversing the relationship between revelation and tradition harmed the umma enormously.

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