Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. 6 : 6. "THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE LAW" Until the nineteenth century A.D. the general tendency of the "'ulam'" was to expand the practical application of the Law--already in theory eternal and universal--so as to give religious value to every act and aspect of life. One means of doing this was the legal...
Chapter Two. The Adith And I. The News. Part 06 : p. 57 CHAPTER TWO THE "ADTH": THE NEWS OF GOD'S MESSENGER Next to the Qur'n itself, the most important Islamic textual material is the "adth": the body of transmitted actions and sayings of the Prophet and his Companions. Professor Wilfred C. Smith has made a most perceptive analogy: the Qur'n is...
Chapter Six. The Dissidents Of The Community. Part 05 : p. 211 CHAPTER SIX THE DISSIDENTS OF THE COMMUNITY Thus far we have dealt with the main body of Muslims, the Sunns, or traditionalists. Local and school differences may exist among them with no impairment to their basic conviction that they form one religious community. However, there exist also...
Chapter Two. The Adith And I. The News. Part 02 : 4. "MUHAMMAD AS MODEL AND GUIDE" The Prophet is not only the founder and legislator of the community: he is the model for Muslims. It is accepted as axiomatic that every act he made after the beginning of the Revelation was preserved by God from error; had it p. 85 not been so, then the Revelati...
Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. 2 : 2. "THE REGULATION OF PERSONAL STATUS" The "fiqh" books, after dealing with "'ibdt"--the Law of Man's Relations with God--usually pass to "mu'malt", or the laws governing human relations. Of these the most universally observed by Muslims are those of personal status--marriage, divorce, fosterage...
Acknowledgments : p. 5 This is the acknowledgments page from the original book. It is included for completeness and for copyright research purposes. Additional bibliographic information, not in the original book, is included in green text in square brackets. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The editor wishes to thank the following...
Chapter Two. The Adith And I. The News. Part 04 : 2. "THE FOUNDING OF THE COMMUNITY" The new leader of the Ban Hshim, Muhammad's uncle Ab Lahab, was allied by marriage with the leaders of the Meccan oligarchy. Since Muhammad could no longer rely on the protection of his clan, his life and his mission were in danger. It was becoming clear th...
Chapter Six. The Dissidents Of The Community. Part 03 : 2. "THE ZAYDS" The Sh'a began as the partisans of 'Al, but it received its greatest impetus from the violent death of his younger son, al-usayn. Al-asan, the eldest, had been proclaimed 'Al's successor by the partisans, but Mu'wiya easily persuaded him to exchange his claim for a large pensi...
Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. 4 : 4. "THE BIDDING UNTO GOOD" (AL-AMR BI AL-MA'RUF) The Law orders men to do good and reject what is reprehensible, and it is also obligatory for Muslims to enjoin right behavior on their fellows and deter them from wrong action. This aspect of Islamic ethics (the "isba") explains a degree of being...
Chapter Six. The Dissidents Of The Community : 4. "THE SEVENERS" A most interesting and historically important sect of Islam has been the division of the Sh'a known as the Seveners. Although they have been divided by many schisms, and given rise to at least one separate religion, they all trace their spiritual parentage of Ism'l, eldest s...
Chapter One. The Qur'an. The Word Of God : 5. "HE REWARDS AND PUNISHES" When the sun shall be darkened, when the stars shall be thrown down, when the mountains shall be set moving, when the pregnant camels shall be neglected, when the savage beasts shall be mustered, when the seas shall be set boiling, p. 52 when the souls shall be coupled...
Chapter One. The Qur'an. The Word Of God. Part 02 : 4. "HE COMMANDS" It is in the Revelation that God makes known His sovereign will; what He has chosen for men and what He has forbidden. O believers, eat of the good things wherewith We have provided you, and give thanks to God, if it be Him that you serve. These things only has He forbidden you:...
Chapter Four. Sufism. The Interior Religi. Part 03 : 3. "THE ANTINOMIANS" Many of the fs who had been sympathetic to allj seem to have moved to Khurasan and Transoxania, where the semiautonomous Samn dynasty had a milder policy toward mystics. fs were chiefly responsible for the conversion p. 150 of the Central Asiatic Turks to Islam. Characteristic...
Chapter One. The Qur'an. The Word Of God. Part 06 : p. 15 CHAPTER ONE THE QUR'N: THE WORD OF GOD The departure point of the Islamic religion, the central article of faith from which all else flows, may be stated as follows: God (the only God there is: "al-Ilh", "Allah" in Arabic; "El", "Elohim", "Jahweh" in Hebrew; "Khud" or "Yazdn" in Persi...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements. Part 06 : 2. "AL-MTURD" In the latter part of the second century A.H., there developed a rationalist tendency among some Islamic thinkers--first influenced apparently by Neoplatonic and Aristotelian theological ideas of the Eastern Christians, and later by direct contact with Greek philosophy translated...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements. Part 02 : p. 205 6. "IBN TAYMYA" The fate of one who resisted the new synthesis of Sunnsm, fism and Scholasticism in which al-Ghazl had played such an important role is illustrated by the career of Tag al-Dn Ahmad ibn Taymya (died A.H. 728/A.D. 1328), a anbal of Damascus in the Mamlk Sultanate, following...
Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. 1. 'ibadat : 1. "'IBDT" The first section of the "fiqh" books is always concerned with the laws governing man's conduct toward God: the necessary acts of worship or obedience demanded of a Muslim, such as prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage, which together with the profession of faith, the "shahda", make...
Chapter Four. Sufism. The Interior Religi. Part 05 : 1. "THE ASCETICS" The first century of Islam found the Muslims in possession of a great empire, in newly conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt and North Africa. The conquered People of the Book were allowed to retain their old religions, with the payment of tribute money, and the conquering...
Chapter One. The Qur'an. The Word Of God. Part 04 : 2. "HE SPEAKS THROUGH THE PROPHETS" "Abraham": The Patriarch Abraham, ancestor of the Semites, is seen in the Qur'n as the prototype of the Muslim; it is implied that he arrived at monotheism by pure reason before the revelation came. With his first-born, Ishmael, he built the Temple of the Ka'b...
Untitled : Title Page Acknowledgments Contents The Opening CHAPTER ONE: THE QUR'N: THE WORD OF GOD Introduction 1. God Speaks to Man 2. He Speaks Through the Prophets 3. He Reveals Himself 4. He Commands 5. He Rewards and Punishes CHAPTER TWO: THE "ADTH": THE NEWS OF GOD'S MESSENGER Introduction 1. Muhammad...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements. Part 04 : 4. "AL-JUWAYN" In the first part of the fifth/A.H. eleventh/A.D. century, the Islamic orthodoxy of the 'Abbs Empire was everywhere on the defensive, as was the empire itself. There now occurred mass migrations of Central Asiatic Turks into Islamic territory. Fortunately for the settled Muslims, who...
Chapter One. The Qur'an. The Word Of God. Part 05 : 1. "GOD SPEAKS TO MAN" The first words of the "Sra (chapter) of the Clot" are the first which were revealed to Muhammad. The section p. 17 which follows the "Sra of the Clot" here is the opening portion of the second and longest chapter of the Qur'n, the "Sra of the Cow." It thus forms a sort...
Title Page : ISLAM EDITED BY JOHN ALDEN WILLIAMS GEORGE BRAZILLER NEW YORK 1962 [c. 1961, Not Renewed] NOTICE Scanned , September, 2005. Proofed and formatted by John Bruno Hare. The book from which this etext was created from is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright was not renewed...
Chapter Four. Sufism. The Interior Religi : 5. "THE DERVISHES" The word "darvsh" (poor) is simply the Persian for the Arabic "faqr" (fakir), a word used, along with the North African "marabout", for f ascetics and mystics. But "dervish" has come to be applied primarily to the adherent of a f order, or "arqa". The earliest f shaykhs had had...
Chapter Four. Sufism. The Interior Religi. Part 04 : 2. "THE ECSTATICS" In so far as they believe in the "via purgativa", the purgation of the soul by asceticism, all the fs have been ascetics. But it was early discovered that the mystic underwent emotional transports in which he attained to a heightened awareness of God. These states were in effect...
Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. Introducti : p. 92 CHAPTER THREE THE LAW: "FIQH", "SHAR'A" The most characteristic activity of Islamic scholarship has not been, as in other religions, theology, but the study and explication of the Law. The concept of a divine law is of course a very ancient one in the Semitic Orient; in Islam the concept...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements. Part 05 : p. 188 3. "AL-ASH'AR" Among the Shfi' School of Baghdad, Mturd's con-temporary al-Ash'ar (died A.H. 324/A.D. 935) played the same role Mturd had among the anafs of Samarqand, and of the two men al-Ash'ar has become the better known. While there were certain disputed questions between the two...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements : p. 173 CHAPTER FIVE KALM: THE STATEMENTS OF THE THEOLOGIANS The word usually used for scholastic theology--"kalm"--is, like "shar'a", the common term for the Law, late in making its appearance. This does not mean that there was no early Islamic theology. Rather, both Law and theology were at first...
Chapter Four. Sufism. The Interior Religi. Part 02 : 4. "THE POETS" Eastern Iran had been hospitable to fism, and with the development of Persian vernacular literature from the eleventh century onward, f poets made an immortal p. 156 contribution to Islamic literature. This was particularly true wherever Persian became the literary language--chiefly...
Chapter Four. Sufism. The Interior Religi. Part 06 : p. 136 CHAPTER FOUR FISM: THE INTERIOR RELIGION OF THE COMMUNITY Despite the claims of the Law, another aspect of Islam has been almost equally important for the rank and file of the faithful--this is fism: mysticism, as it is usually translated. The fs are those Muslims who have most sought...
Guide To Pronunciation Of Terms : p. 251 GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION OF TERMS The system of transliteration used in this volume for rendering Arabic and Persian words in Latin letters closely follows standard modern international practise. The sounds thus represented may be approximated as follows in standard English: "Vowels" "Short...
Chapter One. The Qur'an. The Word Of God. Part 03 : 3. "HE REVEALS HIMSELF" Since the Qur'n is God's Word, the surest knowledge man can have of Him is to be found there, and it is by pondering on the Book as a whole rather than by abstracting or paraphrasing what it says that the Muslim arrives at knowledge of God. In themselves, the verses seem...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements. Part 03 : 5. "AL-GHAZL" Ash'ar scholasticism won acceptance by the "'ulam'" in all but the anbal School. While the Turkish Sultans and their Persian "wazr" were kindly disposed toward fs, and the atmosphere was favorable for rapprochement between the mystics and the legists, the "'ulam'" maintained...
Chapter Five. Kalam. The Statements. Part 07 : p. 174 1. "AB ANFA" We have mentioned earlier that the study of the Law is more important in Islam than the study of theology. This is true, yet it would appear to be contradicted by the statement below, attributed to Ab anfa, that insight in matters of religion is "better" than insight in matters...
Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. 5 : 5. "THE REJECTING OF THE REPREHENSIBLE" (AL-NH 'AN AL-MUNKAR) Among things reprehensible there are degrees: "arm", which means positively tabu, and "makrh", or disapproved. "Prohibited Liquors": [It should be noted that al-Marghinn, a anaf, is taking a particularly liberal view as to wh...
Chapter Two. The Adith And I. The News : p. 88 5. "THE PRESERVATION OF THE PROPHETIC PRACTICE" ("SUNNA") We have indicated that the "adth" transmits the "sunna", the tradition or practice of the Prophet, and even if a "adth" is not in itself true, it may still transmit "sunna"; it may illustrate what the Prophet would approve of, or wh...
Chapter Two. The Adith And I. The News. Part 05 : 1. "MUHAMMAD THE MESSENGER" The earliest biography of the Prophet is the great collection of "adths" compiled by Muhammad ibn Isq of Medina (died c. A.H. 151/A.D. 768). While Ibn Isq was accused in his own time of transmitting false "adths" by Mlik ibn Anas, his material is of the greatest...
Chapter Six. The Dissidents Of The Community. Part 02 : 3. "THE TWELVERS" The Twelver Sh'a, or "Ithna-'asharya", are numerically the largest of the Sh' sects, and exhibit most of the doctrines which became classical with the Sh'a. Theologically, they are Mu'tazil rationalists, believing that the Qur'n is created, and that since God is "essentially" good...
Chapter Three. The Law. Fiqh, Shari'a. 3 : p. 122 3. "THE ORDINANCE OF THE COMMUNITY" The religious-political disturbances of the first Islamic century all centered on the vital question of who should be the "Khalfa", the Prophet's Caliph or successor, or as he is often called, the "Imm", the "leader" of Muslim religious life. The two...
Chapter Six. The Dissidents Of The Community. Part 04 : 1. "THE KHRIJS" The Khrijs soon divided into several sects; from the first they were men who would not and could not compromise. Since their principles frequently led them to fight to the last against overwhelming odds, only the most p. 214 moderate of these sects, the Ibs, has survived into modern...
Chapter Two. The Adith And I. The News. Part 03 : 3. "MUHAMMAD AS FOUNDER AND LEGISLATOR" Muhammad is often referred to by the Muslim philosophers as "The Lawgiver," since from his governing of the early community and the example of his life the Islamic Law has been systematized. The Law is usually seen as of Divine origin, but mediated by...
The Opening : p. 13 THE OPENING "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate". Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds, The Merciful One, the Compassionate One, Master of the Day of Doom. Thee alone we serve, to Thee alone we cry for help. Guide us in the straight path The path of them Thou hast...
