Defusing Islamism

Muslims became pre-eminent by following the Book of Allah. Then, because of politics, the umma disconnected from the Book of Allah. It turned to ways of the predecessors, recorded in the traditions. In this way, Muslims became "traditional." As a result, Muslims went from pre-eminence into its reverse. Allah says that "We never change the condition of people until they first change what is in themselves." Was there any "change"? A few wanted "to change" the Book of Allah or "replace" it with a different book. Traditionalist ulama produced sixty books of traditions, referring to them as "revelation from God." Treating tradition as "revelation from God" assisted in the reorientation of Muslims from the Book of Allah to the books of traditions. How is the treatment of tradition as "revelation" different from a "fabrication" of revelation? For Allah prohibited "adding" to revelation, chapter 69, verses 44 - 46. To treat traditions as "revelation from God" requires treating the reports of transmitters as "equal" to the words of Allah. This is shirk. There was a further "change" when Islam became "political." It was reinterpreted to render wars of aggression lawful. But Allah prohibited wars of aggression. To re-invent revelation as a teaching of war, hawkish ulama "abrogated" all verses in the Book of Allah that restrict warfare to self-defence and teach reconciliation. Even the verse according to which "there is no compulsion in religion" was "abrogated." Recourse to the teaching of abrogation requires the rejection of all purportedly "abrogated" verses. Hence, embracing the teaching of abrogation requires the perpetration of kufr. For to reject a verse is to cease believing in it. Hence, the teaching of abrogation is not just un-Islamic; it is anti-Islamic. Recourse to the teaching of abrogation transformed Islam into a teaching of war. Militant ulama treat waging wars of aggression to "propagate" Islam through war as a "sixth pillar of Islam." The transformation of Islam into a teaching of war by recourse to the teaching of abrogation tampered with the teaching of revelation. By recourse to abrogation, jurists also turned penal legislation into a tool of repression. By providing a "justification" for waging unlawful wars of aggression under the banner of Islam, bellicose ulama permitted their profession to sink to the rank of propaganda. Renewal requires a return to revelation, the rehabilitation of and re-engagement of reason and the desacralization of tradition. For traditionalism stripped Islam of its teaching of ethics. There are no books on justice, ethics, morality in Bukhari. Even books with teachings regarding the use of reason and the right to freedom are missing from Bukhari. Al-Shatibi did not treat justice as a "purpose of the law." Rather, there are ninety-eight traditions in Bukhari on where to put one's hands during the prayer. Emphasis is on ritual rather than ethics. Wars of aggression triggered retaliation. The Umayyads were defeated in France and afterwards expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. The Abbasids were vanquished by Mongols, after they slaughtered three hundred Mongol traders as well as three ambassadors dispatched by Genghis Khan to ask for justice. The Ottomans were turned back twice at the "Gates of Vienna," in 1529 and 1683. More recently, Baghdad was sacked the second time, due to the excesses of the Iraqi leadership. Afghanistan was attacked because of the intransigence of its rulers and furnishing training to terrorists. Musa al-Hadi slaughtered 5,000 persons in 786 for the crime of "thinking" and upholding the "freedom" of enquiry. This was totalitarianism. The prohibition of ijtihad, an expression of the repression of reason, was an expression of what Fazlur Rahman referred to as "intellectual suicide. This also brought "political suicide." We witness to the presence of jurisprudence of terror, where ulama treat crimes against humanity and terrorism as "martyrdom operations" or acts of pie...