Six Waves that Transformed the Religion of Peace into Islamism: Genealogy of Militant Islam

By Leslie Terebessy

Are Christianity and Judaism understood as they were before? Baruch Spinoza examined the Old Testament, while Georg Friedrich Hegel examined the New Testament. Both inferred that there were "issues" with the texts. Muslims possesses an uncorrupted Book of Allah. Does this mean that the knowledge of the Book is also uncorrupted? There are reasons to think that there were a few "changes." What exactly were these "changes"? There were no books of traditions in early Islam. Muslims, together with Muhammad, followed the "best hadith," the Book of Allah. Afterwards, books recorded by Bukhari & Co. presented themselves as "supplementary" and "explanatory" revelation. The turn to the traditions was justified by the assertion that the Book of Allah required "clarification," as it was not "clear." But there were further factors. There was a requirement to provide a "religious" justification for territorial enlargement and empire building. Rulers endeavoured to enlarge the "abode of peace" through unlawful wars. But they wanted under the banner of the "religion of peace." Thus, they tasked different ulama with providing a "religious" justification for unlawful wars of territorial expansion. They accomplished this through the weaponization of exegesis, enlisting exegesis to further the political aspirations of the rulers. Exegesis was weaponized when the "peace verses" of the Book of Allah were treated as "abrogated" by the "verse of the sword." Weaponized exegesis transformed Islam into Islamism. Unfortunately, the "weaponization of research" required a transformation of research into political propaganda. The weaponization of exegesis was assisted by the repression of reason, its subordination to tradition. Tradition replaces reason as the means that enables comprehension. The reticence to use reason is a residue of the persecution of the rationalists, resting on the perception that reason and revelation are adversaries. The tendency to disparage reason is rooted in the perception that the right way to understand revelation was by intuition rather than intellection. Sufis are suspicious of reason. This recalls Nietzsche's reservations about the effects of rationalism on humanity expressed in his Birth of Tragedy. Muslims tending to Sufism expressed relief that the revivification of religious thought "saved" the Muslim ummah from the fate of the West: materialism, secularism and hedonism. However, this conviction rests upon a problematic foundation, the alleged "tension" between reason and revelation. For anti-rationalism teaches that reason is ill-equipped to comprehend transcendental truth. Mystic awareness requires experience that transcends and even dispenses with reason. Thus, the revival of religious knowledge required the sacrifice of reason on the altar of tradition. The "revival" of religion in Islam, according to the Sufis, requires the subordination of reason to tradition. Sufis enchanted by tradition renounce reason, preferring to rely upon tradition rather than reason. To rational persons, however, the reluctance to engage reason is itself unreasonable. For revelation exhorts us to "use reason." Moreover, attaining knowledge - not excluding religious knowledge - is not possible without recourse to reason. The challenge is to establish a "balance" between reason and revelation. Excessive reliance on either reason or tradition will corrupt knowledge. There is no knowledge without reasoning, as there is no getting across a river without a bridge or boat. In different words, the retreat from reason is problematic. Retreating from reason prevents anti-rationalists from understanding revelation. This results in misguidance.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09FSCFZV4
• ISBN13: 9798474222950
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"