Renaissance of Islam: Reforming Exegesis

By Leslie Terebessy

Allah never changes the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. It is painfully evident that the state of the umma changed. The state of the umma changed because it exchanged the Book of Allah for books of traditions. The umma turned from revelation to tradition. Books of traditions became "dearer" to the umma than the Book of Allah. The turn from revelation to tradition was a shift from a revelation-centric epistemological paradigm to a tradition-centric paradigm. The "turn" was triggered by politics. It was assisted by the repression of reason. The turn triggered the emergence of arbitrary rule. Hawkish rulers craved a "religious" justification for waging wars of aggression. But there is no justification for wars of aggression in revelation. Thus, rulers with expansionary aspirations engaged hawkish ulama to "reinterpret" revelation to furnish a justification for wars of aggression in the name of Islam. Research became politicized. Exegesis and jurisprudence were weaponized. Research morphed into propaganda. The weaponization of the epistemology of revelation required recourse to hawkish traditions and the teaching of abrogation. The turn to tradition was justified by treating tradition as revelation, and by treating revelation as "unclear," "insufficiently detailed," and "contradictory." These mischaracterizations reject what the Book of Allah teaches. For revelation presents itself as "clear," "detailed," and "coherent." Rejecting these characterizations is an expression of kufr. These mischaracterizations are disrespectful to the Book of Allah as well as to Allah. They portray Him as a "person" who is "blurred," "forgetful," and "contradicts" himself. This is anthropomorphism. According to a warlike tradition, "the blood of the kafir is halal for the believer." The teaching of "abrogation" treats all verses of reconciliation as "abrogated" by the verse of the sword. The proponents of abrogation expect the umma to refrain cease treating all "abrogated" verses as true. To ask a Muslim to refrain from treating all verses of the Book of Allah as true is to expect that person to perpetrate kufr. Accordingly, the teaching of abrogation is at bottom a beckoning to kufr. Militant jurists treat jihad al-talab as a requirement, a sixth pillar of Islam, in the purported "clash" of the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb. But this perspective possesses no basis in revelation. The treatment of tradition as "revelation" engendered "traditional" Islam. The abrogation of all verses of reconciliation by the verse of the sword engendered political Islam. They misrepresent Islam in different ways. Traditional Islam renders the umma resigned to its "fate." Islamism justifies aggression. But aggression triggered a pushback. The umma was defeated in France in 732, by the Mongols on 1258, and at the "Gates of Vienna" twice, in 1529 and 1683. Allah does not love wrongdoers. Afghanistan and Iraq, were bombed, resulting in the deaths of millions. Militants, with their participation in terrorism, rooted in jihad al-talab, represent the biggest threat to the global community. Refraining from the use of reason was tantamount to an "intellectual suicide." It rendered the umma bereft of reason. The "intellectual suicide" inaugurated in a "tradition of intellectual retardation." This enabled recourse to unwarranted perceptions. These encompass the treatment of tradition as "revelation from God," recourse to the teaching of abrogation and treating jihad al-talab as a sixth pillar of Islam. The treatment of tradition as "revelation from God" tainted knowledge with shirk. For the teaching of "dual revelation" presupposes a duality of divinity. Treating tradition as a second "revelation from God" embedded a range of aberrations in the epistemology of revelation, e.g. the perception that tradition "judges" revelation. Renewal requires a desacralization of tradition and a return to the revelation-centric epistemological paradigm.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09ZFKT295
• ISBN13: 9798821719676
• Release Date: May 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"