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
Revelation and Tradition in Islam: Tradition Redefines Revelation

Revelation and Tradition in Islam: Tradition Redefines Revelation

Terebessy, Leslie

Paperback

IslamGeneral EducationGeneral Political Science

ISBN13: 9798493109010
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Oct 9 2021
Pages: 252
Weight: 0.68
Height: 0.63 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The umma is in trauma. There is poverty, corruption, and repression. Why is that? Revelation states that Allah never changes the condition of people unless they first change what is in themselves. The turn from revelation to tradition was triggered by politics. Hawkish rulers aspired to enlarge the empire. This required wars of aggression. But wars of aggression are prohibited in revelation. Accordingly, the rulers engaged different ulama to reinterpret revelation to provide a justification for waging wars of aggression. As the ulama could find no justification of aggression in revelation, they turned to tradition. To justify aggression, Islamist ulama propagate the perception of the war between the realm of Islam and the realm of war. This perception furnished a justification for treating wars of aggression as not just lawful but as a pillar of Islam. But this perception is without justification in revelation. The reinterpretation of Islam as a teaching of war was expedited by the abrogation of all verses of reconciliation by the verse of the sword. The turn to tradition was also justified by the perception tradition, too, is revelation and a part of the Book of Allah. Treating tradition as revelation transpired in defiance of the prohibition of the fabrication of revelation (69:44-46). Traditions were also recorded in defiance of the prophet's prohibition of writing his traditions. The turn from revelation to tradition bewildered the umma. For traditions cannot replace revelation. There is no comparison. Thus, Islam of tradition differs from the Islam of revelation. Tradition is treated as a judge of revelation. But treating tradition as a judge of revelation, however, reverses the relationship between revelation and tradition, subordinating the revelation of Allah to the judgment of men. Tradition was treated as a root of legislation. But legislation in Islam is the exclusive prerogative of Allah. To treat tradition as a root of legislation is to treat their transmitters as lawgivers. This is shirk. Treating tradition as revelation enabled tradition to abrogate and replace revelation pertaining to apostasy and adultery. Allah prescribed the death penalty for neither. But jurists prescribe capital punishment for both. Hawkish jurists transformed parts of penal legislation into a license to kill. In this they transgressed the hudud of Allah. Recourse to problematic perceptions was assisted by the repression of reason. For which person in his or her right mind would agree that tradition is revelation? The reluctance to use reason was justified by recourse to a tradition in which using reason to understand revelation is treated as kufr. This produced adverse effects. The reluctance to engage reason prevents Muslims from understanding revelation. A few verses began to strike them as unclear. The required clarification would be provided by tradition. They presumed that persons explain better than Allah. The treatment of tradition as a judge of revelation was also justified by the perception that revelation is in parts insufficiently detailed. But revelation presents itself as clear and fully detailed. Why would a Book that is clear and fully detailed require further clarification and detailing? The perception that the Book is in parts unclear and insufficiently detailed requires rejecting all verses that teach the contrary. This is tantamount to kufr. The perceptions that the Book is in parts unclear and insufficiently detailed accordingly render all exegesis and jurisprudence built upon them unreliable. Renewal requires the desacralization of tradition, the affirmation of the pre-eminence of revelation and the rehabilitation and re-engagement of reason. This requires a rehabilitation of the knowledge of revelation. It also requires the rehabilitation of the epistemology of revelation, both exegesis and jurisprudence.

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