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Those who follow the elected caliphs are “the
people of the Sunnah” (the sayings and practices of the Prophet, as collected
under the Sunni caliphs). They consider themselves traditionalists, and they
emphasize the authority of the Qur’an and the Hadith and Sunnah. They believe
that Muhammad died without appointing a successor and left the matter of
successors to the ummah, the Muslim community. They look to the time of the first
four “rightly guided caliphs” (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and ’Ali) as the golden
age of Islam. They regard the caliph as the leader of worship and the
administrator of the Shari’ah, the
sacred law of Islam. Sunnis regard not only the life of the Prophet but also
the lives of the rightly guided caliphs—who had heard the revelations of the
Prophet firsthand and been inspired by his personal example—and a few other
close companions of the Prophet as the models for the ideal Muslim. [LR, 399] |
The Shi’a feel that ’Ali was the rightful original successor
to the Prophet Muhammad....They feel that spiritual power was passed on to
’Ali, and that the caliphate is based on this spiritual as well as temporal
authority....Rather than recognize the Sunni caliphs, the Shi’a pay allegiance
to a succession of seven or twelve Imams
(leaders, guides)….“ Twelver” Shi’a believe that there were a total of twelve
Imams, legitimate hereditary successors to Muhammad. The twelfth Imam, they
believe, was commanded by God to go into an occult hidden state to continue to
guide the people and return publicly at the Day of Resurrection as the Mahdi. A
minority of the Shi’a, the Nizari Isma’ilis, recognize a different
person as the seventh Imam. This line of Imams has continued to the present forty-ninth Imam, HRH Prince Karim Aga Khan IV....Unlike
the Sunni caliph, the Imam combines political leadership (if possible)
with continuing the transmission of Divine Guidance....The
Shari’ah is therefore interpreted for each generation by the
Imam, for he is closest to the divine knowledge. [LR, 400-1]
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In addition to the two orthodox traditions within
Islam—Sunni and Shi’a—there is also an esoteric tradition, which is said to
date back to the time of the Prophet….Sufis have typically understood their way
as a corrective supplement to orthodoxy. For their part, some orthodox Sunnis
do not consider Sufis to be Muslims. Sufis consider their way a path to God
that is motivated by longing for the One. In addition to studying the Qur’an,
Sufis feel that the world is a book filled with “signs”—divine symbols and
elements of beauty that speak to those who understand. The intense personal
journeys of Sufis and the insights that have resulted from their truth-seeking
have periodically refreshed Islam from within….The aim of Sufism is to become
so purified of self that one is a perfect mirror for the divine attributes. The
central practice is called dhikr, or
“remembrance.” It consists of stirring the heart and piercing the solar plexus,
seat of the ego, by movements of the head, while continually repeating “la ilaha
illa Allah,” which Sufis understand in its esoteric sense: “There is nothing
except God.” Nothing in this ephemeral world is real except the Creator;
nothing else will last. As the seventy thousand veils of self—illusion,
expectation, attachment, resentment, egocentrism, discontent, arrogance—drop
away over the years, this becomes one’s truth, and only God is left to
experience it. [LR, 401-6]
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Islam & the State
In the past few centuries, modern industrial societies
separated religion from politics. Social, political, and economic
issues have been treated without any reference to a higher authority or
to the values taught by the prophets; religion has been considered a
largely private matter, even within some Muslim majority states such as
Turkey. By contrast, a re-emerging ideal among contemporary Muslim
social reformers is that, as Professor Muhammad Mashuq ibn Ally
explains:
The human being, the servant, is the trustee of creation
under the sovereignty of God, capable of transforming it within the
framework of the divine will. Humankind’s obedience to, and fulfillment
of, the divine command results in happiness and thus unites worldly and
cosmic justice. This visionary paradigm in the unity of religious and
cultural consciousness enables the assembly of a formidable force to
spearhead a new world order, where the consensus is salam—peace. [LR,
417] |
At
present, the facet of Islam that is of greatest concern around the
world to both Muslims and non-Muslims is its association with politics.
Many governments are becoming Islamicized. There are more frequent
references to Islam and Qur’anic
statements by political leaders....Some charismatic leaders have used
their own interpretations of Islam to ignite violent political
expressions of frustration and hatred against Western global
domination. These include suicidal terrorist attacks against civilian
targets by those who have been assured that their self-sacrifice for
the cause will earn them entry to Paradise, contrary to Quranic
passages refusing suicide and upholding the value and sanctity of each
human life.
A major issue at stake is the understanding of jihad. All Muslims are enjoined by the Qur’an to carry on jihad. Commonly
mistranslated as “holy war,” it means
“striving.” The prophet Muhammad is said to have
distinguised between two types of jihad. Of these, he said, the Greater
Jihad is the struggle against one’s
lower self. It
is the internal fight between wrong and right, error and truth,
selfishness and
selflessness, hardness of heart and all-embracing love. This inner
struggle to
maintain peaceful equilibrium is then reflected in outer attempts to
keep
society in a state of harmonious order, as the earthly manifestation of
Divine
Justice. The Lesser Jihad is an external effort to protect the Way of
God against the forces of evil. This jihad is the safeguarding of
one’s life, faith, livelihood, honor, and the integrity of the
Muslim
community. The Prophet Muhammad reportedly said that “the preferred jihad is a truth spoken in the presence of a tyrant.”
In terms of the Lesser Jihad, support can be
found in the Qur’an both for a pacifist approach and for active
opposition to unbelievers....In some passages, Muslims are enjoined
simply to stand firm against aggression. For example, “fight for
the sake of Allah those that fight against you, but do not be
aggressive. Allah does not love the aggressors.”
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Holy Qur’an 29:46
Do not argue with the followers of the
earlier revelations otherwise than in a most kindly manner—unless
it be such of them as are bent on evild-doing—and say: We believe
in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, as well as that
which has been bestowed upon you; for our God and your God is one and
the same, and it is unto Him that we all surrender ourselves. [LR, 428]
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In other
passages, Qur’an suggests active opposition to people who do not
believe in the supremacy of the one God:
Tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter.
Nor will they cease fighting you
Until they turn you back from your faith
If they can...
Fight them on
Until there is no more tumult or oppression
And there prevail justice and faith in God.
...There is
as yet no
political unity among Muslim states, but growing antagonism toward the
West is tending to create a certain political unity in opposition to
pre-emptive use of American military power against Muslim countries in
the “war against terror.”
[LR, 421-3]
AV 297.63 M89k dvd
(chapters 13~14)
| While
there is no central interpretive authority in Islam, an acceptable
interpretation must satisfy a minimum number of requirements. For
example, the interpretation must be based on the Qur’an and Sunnah. It must be based on knowledge and motivated by Piety. It must also serve (rather than harm) maslaha, the public interest of Muslims in particular and humanity in general. [LR,
426] |
The Qur’an permits the jihad
of violence only under very specific conditions. To fight, people must
have been deprived of their right to live and support themselves. The
action must be undertaken not by individuals but by the collective
wisdom of the Muslim community. Jihadis
are never allowed to harm women, children, or unarmed civilians. They
cannot wilfully destroy property. The tactics of terrorists are
therefore not permitted by the Qur’an. [LR, 428]
| If we
are to understand and respond to the challenge of political Islam, its
diverse manifestations must be seen within the multiplicity of
intellectual and political contexts in which it occurs. While the
threats of extremism and violence must be countered forcefully and
effectively, the long-term relations of the West with the Muslim
world—like the legitimacy of governments within the Muslim world—will
hinge on its response to the emergence of new social and political
forces and its respect for their legitimate aspirations for greater
political participation, social justice, and human rights. [LR,
429] |
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Gender in Islam
[T]o
honor the Qur’anic encouragement of physical modesty to protect
women from being molested, many Muslim women have adopted hijab
(veiling), covering their bodies except for hands, face, and feet, as
they had not done for decades. In Saudi Arabia, where women have been
ordered to be “properly covered” outside their homes, some
wear not only head-to-toe black cloaks but also full veils over their
faces without even slits for their eyes. Some Muslim women assert that
they like dressing more modestly so that men will not stare at them.
Others feel that men are simply treating women as slaves. [LR, 417-8]
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