Anti-rationalism and the Corruption of Knowledge in Islam: Post Mortem of Intellectual Suicide Kindle Edition

The umma turned from revelation to tradition. The turn was triggered by politics. Rulers aspired to enlarge the realm by wars of aggression. But wars of aggression are prohibited in revelation. Accordingly, they turned to tradition. Rulers justified wars of aggression by recourse to a tradition where the prophet reportedly asserted that “the blood of the kafir is halal for the believer.” But this tradition, too, defies revelation. The turn from revelation to tradition was an epistemological “paradigm shift.” A tradition-centric paradigm replaced the revelation-centric paradigm. This “reorientation,” however, produced an aberration in the epistemology of revelation. For it encroached upon tawhid. Tradition would henceforth be treated as a “partner” and a “part of” revelation. The reorientation was buttressed by the perception that the predecessors possessed “better” knowledge of revelation than all persons afterwards. War of aggression were justified by the politicization of revelation. Accordingly, hawkish ulama re-engineered revelation as a teaching of war. The rearticulation of Islam as a teaching of war would provide a justification for empire-building. Unfortunately, the reorientation from revelation to tradition plunged Muslims into confusion. Traditions became “sacred” and the Book of Allah was neglected. Neglecting the Book of Allah fragmented the umma. Muslims soon went to war against each other. Thousands of Muslims perished in the First Fitna. More perished in the Second, Third and Fourth Fitnas. Infighting persists. How did this transpire? The reluctance to engage reason to understand revelation prevented the umma from understanding revelation. In this way, the repression of reason estranged the umma from the Book of Allah. The repression of reason also corrupted legislation. Punishments from traditions replaced punishments in revelation. This was justified by treating traditions as “revelations from Allah.” The repression of the free willers and the rationalists, five thousand of whom were massacred by Musa al-Hadi in 786 for the crime of “free thinking,” heralded the emergence of authoritarianism. The repression of reason was intellectual suicide. It brought political suicide, reflected in the wars of aggression, prohibited by revelation, waged to enlarge the empire. Wars of aggression were justified by recourse to the teaching of jihad al-talab, propagation of Islam by the sword, treated as a sixth pillar of Islam in the war of the dar al-harb and the dar al-Islam. The weaponization of revelation entailed the rejection of all verses which teach that the Book of Allah is “perspicuous,” “detailed” and “coherent.” The weaponization of revelation required the repression of reason. Mercenary ulama justified aggression through the “abrogation” of all verses of reconciliation by the verse of the sword. Henceforth, the umma embarked upon a war path against the rest of the world in the epic clash between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb. When non-Muslims pushed back, as Charles Martel did in the Battle of Tours in France in 732, Genghis Khan at Baghdad in 1268, and the Europeans in Siege of Vienna in 1529 and the Battle Vienna in 1683, the umma experienced setbacks. The wars revealed a pattern. Aggression triggers retaliation. In justifying aggression, hawkish ulama rendered lawful what Allah prohibited. They transformed Islam into a teaching of war, to rule and establish a caliphate on the earth. Renewal requires the rejection of the teachings of abrogation and predestination, the de-sacralization of tradition and a rehabilitation and re-engagement of reason. The transformation of Islam into Islamism, propelled by politics and enabled by repression, produced Islamist governance. In this regime sins are treated as crimes. The authorities micromanage the population. There is no freedom. Persecution proliferates. This is tyranny writ large. Read more