Islam and Politics: Post-Mortem of a Tradition

By Leslie Terebessy

Islam was preeminent. Afterwards, Islam declined. The umma is experiencing trauma. What happened? The umma let go of the "rope of Allah." The umma turned to follow the predecessors whose ways are recorded in the traditions. The trauma resulted from the turn from revelation to tradition, the repression of reason, the treatment of tradition as revelation and the abrogation of revelation. The turn was a reorientation from a revelation-centric to a tradition-centric theological paradigm. The turn from the Book of Allah to the books of traditions formally began with the recording of traditions. The turn from revelation to tradition "re-interpreted" revelation to justify wars of aggression. For the Book of Allah prohibits wars of aggression. Hawkish rulers wanted to expand the empire by hook or crook. Accordingly, they engaged hawkish ulama to re-interpret revelation to justify wars of aggression. The "reinterpretation" would release rulers from restrictions on warfare in the Book of Allah. For revelation prohibits aggression, allowing fighting exclusively in self-defense or against persecution. This required rendering wars of aggression, prohibited by revelation. The turn from revelation to tradition was justified by the assertion that tradition, too, is "revelation from God." The turn traditions was accelerated by the repression of reason. But the rejection of reason was tantamount to "intellectual suicide." Reason was repressed by ulema with little use for reason by recourse to a tradition that treats the use of reason to understand revelation as kufr. The repression of reason inaugurated a "tradition of intellectual retardation." There was a struggle between the rationalists and the traditionists regarding the right way to understand revelation. Traditionists argued that the preferred way to understand and follow revelation was to follow the ways of the forefathers, by following tradition. Rationalists, by comparison, argued that the right way to comprehend revelation is through reason. Traditionists did not agree, and as they could not defeat the rationalists using arguments, as they were not well versed in reasoning, they turned to violence. They exterminated five-thousand rationalists in 786, during the reign of Musa al-Hadi, in a pogrom reminiscent of the Reign of Terror, that transpired in 1792, a millennium afterwards in revolutionary France. Sadly, "orthodoxy" was established by force in both cases. Sixteen thousand supporters of the monarchy were put to death in revolutionary France at the time of the rule of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. In Islam, it was the rationalists that were persecuted by the traditionists. Rationalists are reviled by persons with no regard for rationality to this day. They perceive reason as an enemy of revelation. The umma turned from revelation to tradition, to follow the paths of the forefathers, recorded in the books of traditions. Transmitters of traditions were treated as "authorities." Even laws would be derived from traditions, essentially hearsay. In cases of apostasy, adultery and blasphemy, tradition "abrogated" and "replaced" revealed legislation. Transmitters of traditions are treated as "authorities" greater than Allah. The treatment of tradition as "revelation from God" tainted traditional Islam with shirk. The re-orientation from the Book of Allah to traditions corrupted the knowledge of the Book of Allah. Together with the repression of reason, the re-orientation from revelation to tradition detached the umma from the Book of Allah. The repression of reason ensured that the umma would not be able to understand and therefore follow revelation. In desperation, the umma turned to tradition.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BSWZTG9B
• ISBN13: 9798375074443
• Release Date: January 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"