Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door 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

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Resetting the Relationship Between Revelation and Tradition in Islam: Restoring the Balance

Resetting the Relationship Between Revelation and Tradition in Islam: Restoring the Balance

Terebessy, Leslie

Paperback

General Education

ISBN13: 9798373141871
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jan 9 2023
Pages: 124
Weight: 0.39
Height: 0.26 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The umma is experiencing trials and tribulations because it disconnected from Allah by disconnecting from the Book of Allah. The umma disconnected from the Book of Allah when it neglected the Book of Allah and turned to books of traditions. Allah says He loves those who put their trust in Him. To turn from revelation to tradition is to trade revealed knowledge for reports of persons. Allah said He does not change the condition of people until they first change what is in themselves (13: 11). The turn was triggered by politics. It transpired with the emergence of despotism, and furnished a justification for it. Hawkish rulers endeavoured to bypass restrictions on wars of territorial enlargement. Accordingly, they tasked ulama to render lawful what Allah prohibited. The ulama rendered wars of aggression into a pillar of Islam through the weaponization of jurisprudence, through recourse to the teaching of abrogation and by treating tradition as revelation from God. The former cancelled all verses of reconciliation, while the latter established tradition as a binding precedent. The turn from revelation to tradition was assisted by the repression of reason. It was also assisted by misinterpreting the meaning of hikma, meaning wisdom, as the tradition of the prophet. The turn from revelation to tradition was a paradigm shift of epic proportions. It replaced the revelation-centric paradigm with a tradition-centric paradigm. The re-orientation, that resulted in a disorientation, was justified by the assertion that tradition, too, is revelation. The treatment of tradition as revelation from God embedded a duality into the epistemology of Islam. But is it possible to endorse a duality of revelation into religion without also endorsing a duality of divinity? The teaching of dual revelation corrupted the knowledge of revelation. Traditions were treated as revelations from Allah. This encroached upon tawhid. The prophet prohibited recording his sayings. Yet hawkish rulers, in defiance of the prophet's prohibition, asked ulama to record the traditions. Anti-rationalism plunged Muslims into confusion. Due to the resulting backwardness, anti-rationalism also rendered the umma vulnerable to external assaults. Reason was subordinated to tradition. Even revelation was subordinated to tradition. Thus, the relationship between revelation and tradition in Islam also requires attention. For tradition eclipsed revelation. This is an aberration. This reversal is expressed in the perceptions that tradition judges revelation and that revelation requires tradition more than tradition requires revelation. Perceptions that treat the rulings of persons as more authoritative than the rulings of God reflect scriptural shirk. The reversal of the relationship between revelation and tradition encroaches on the pre-eminence of revelation. It represents a breakdown of traditional exegesis and jurisprudence. Tradition went from being mere reports from the past to being treated as revelation, a judge of the Book of Allah, abrogating and even replacing parts of the Book. Treating tradition as revelation from Allah enabled tradition to supersede and replace parts of revelation. The result is legislation where reports of persons replace revealed rulings. This transpired with the punishments for adultery, apostasy and blasphemy. These punishments do not merely defy the Book of Allah; they result in miscarriages of justice, and attribute an unjustified aura of harshness to the sharia and Muslims generally. Hence, the relationship between revelation and tradition requires being reset. Tradition must be subordinated to revelation. The teaching of abrogation was used to transform the religion of reconciliation into an agenda of territorial expansion and global conquest. Shirk tainted exegesis as well as jurisprudence. The politicization of research reduced it to the rank of political propaganda. These aberrations require attention.

Also from

Terebessy, Leslie

View All

Also in

General Education

View All