VOLUME 33 FALL 2016 NUMBER 4 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC SOCIAL SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT
Editor-in-Chief AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman Editor Zakyi Ibrahim Managing Editor Aliaa Dakroury Copy Editor Jay Willoughby Book Review Editor Mahdi Tourage Associate Editors Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad Haifaa Jawad Mehmet Asutay Marcia Hermansen Ahmad Yousif International Advisory Board Khurshid Ahmad Akbar Ahmed Manzoor Alam Khaled Blankinship Katherine Bullock Charles Butterworth Ahmad Davutoglu John L. Esposito Mehdi Golshani M. Kamal Hassan Mohammad H. Kamali Enes Karic Seyyed Hossein Nasr James P. Piscatori Anne Sofie Roald Tamara Sonn Antony Sullivan Sayyid M. Syeed A publication of: The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) Mailing Address: All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at: AJISS, P.O. Box 669, Herndon, VA 20172-0669 USA Phone: 703-471-1133 Fax: 703-471-3922 ajiss@iiit.org www.iiit.org
Editor-in-Chief AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman Editor Zakyi Ibrahim Managing Editor Aliaa Dakroury Copy Editor Jay Willoughby Book Review Editor Mahdi Tourage Associate Editors Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad Haifaa Jawad Mehmet Asutay Marcia Hermansen Ahmad Yousif International Advisory Board Khurshid Ahmad Akbar Ahmed Manzoor Alam Khaled Blankinship Katherine Bullock Charles Butterworth Ahmad Davutoglu John L. Esposito Mehdi Golshani M. Kamal Hassan Mohammad H. Kamali Enes Karic Seyyed Hossein Nasr James P. Piscatori Anne Sofie Roald Tamara Sonn Antony Sullivan Sayyid M. Syeed A publication of: The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) Mailing Address: All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at: AJISS, P.O. Box 669, Herndon, VA 20172-0669 USA Phone: 703-471-1133 Fax: 703-471-3922 ajiss@iiit.org www.iiit.org
VOLUME 33 FALL 2016 NUMBER 4 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC SOCIAL SCIENCES A double blind peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT
Note to Contributors The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS) is a double blind peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal that publishes a wide variety of scholarly research on all facets of Islam and the Muslim world: anthropology, economics, history, philosophy and metaphysics, politics, psychology, religious law, and traditional Islam. Submissions are subject to a blind peer review process. Submissions must conform to the following guidelines: Be the author s original research. Simultaneous submissions to other journals, as well as previous publication in any format and language, are not accepted. Be between 7,000 and 10,000 words in length (shorter articles may be accepted when justified by their exceptionally high quality); book reviews and conference reports must be between 1,000-1,500 words; Include a 250 word (max) abstract; Cite all bibliographical information in endnotes. Provide full biographical information (e.g., full name(s) of author(s), complete title of the source, place of publication, publishing company, date of publication, and the specific page being cited) when the source is mentioned for the first time. For subsequent citations of the same source, list the author s last name, abbreviate the title, and give the relevant page number(s). Do not use footnotes or a bibliography; Avoid putting the author s name in headers or footers, and avoid any personal references in the body or the endnotes that might betray their identity to referees; Include a cover sheet with the author s full name, current university or professional affiliation, mailing address, phone/fax number(s), and current e-mail address. Provide a two-sentence biography; Transliterate Arabic words according to the style in AJISS, which is based upon that used by the Library of Congress; All submissions should be in MS-Word, double-spaced, and on single-sided numbered pages; AJISS does not return manuscripts to authors. AJISS is indexed in the following publications: a) U.M.I. (16 mm microfilm, 35 mm microfilm, 105 mm microfiche for article copies of 1990 issues and after); b) Religion Index One: Periodicals and Index to Book Reviews in Religion (1987 and after). These indexes are part of the ATLA Religion Data-base, available on the WilsonDisc CD-ROM from H. W. Wilson Co., and online via WilsonLine, BRS Information Technologies, and Dialog Information Services; c) Public Affairs Information Service (December 1990 and after); d) Sociological Abstracts - Pro- Quest (1985 and after); and e) International Current Awareness Services (1992 and after). Selected material is indexed in the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. Opinions expressed in AJISS are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publishers. No photocopying is allowed without the express permission of the publisher. See last page for distributors and subscription rates. The TranslitLS, TranslitSBL and TranslitLSAKK fonts used to create this work are 1994-2002 Payne Loving Trust. They are available from Linguist s Software, Inc., www.linguistsoftware.com, PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580 USA, tel (425) 775-1130. International Institute of Islamic Thought ISSN 0742-6763
CONTENTS Editorial...v Articles Framing Political Islam: Syria s Muslim Brotherhood and the 2011 Uprising Amir Abdul Reda...1 Female Preachers and the Public Discourse on Islam in Malaysia Norbani B. Ismail...23 A Model-based Semantic Network for Smart Representation and the Inference of Islamic Law Ahmed Mabrouk...48 Professional Ethics and the Education of Engineers at the International Islamic University Malaysia Ibrahim M. Zein...77 Review Essay Contemplation and Craft in Turkish Material Arts Tammy Gaber...95 Book Reviews The Shi a in Modern South Asia: Religion, History, and Politics (by Justin Jones and Ali Usman Qasmi, eds.) Philipp Bruckmayr...102 Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. Sciences of the Soul and Intellect Part I. An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 32-36 (by Paul E. Walker, Ismail K. Poonawala and David Simonowitz, Godefroid de Callatay, eds./trans.) Sajjad Rizvi...106 Uṣūl al-tafsīr: The Sciences and Methodology of the Qur an (by Recep Doğan) Walid Ghali...110 The Transnational Mosque: Architecture and Historical Memory in the Contemporary Middle East (by Kishwar Rizvi) Tammy Gaber...112 Magic in Islam (by Michael Muhammad Knight) Amina Inloes...117
Iftā and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West (by Zulfiqar Ali Shah) Saheed Ahmad Rufai...121 Qur an in Conversation (by Michael Birkel) Julian Bond...126 Forum The Foundation and Principles of Critical Thinking Muhammad Mumtaz Ali...132 Communities of Interpretation: The Case of the Qur an Emran El-Badawi...145 Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports Islamic Thought and Secular Modernity Jay Willoughby...154 IIIT Panels at the 2016 ISNA Convention Hadeel Elaradi...160
Editorial Consensus in the Islamic Legal System: An Indispensable or a Negligible Source? All Muslims regard the Qur an as authoritative. The Sunnah, on the other hand, although authoritative to the majority of Muslims, does not enjoy such universality. 1 Yet to the Sunnis and Shi ahs, both of them are so authoritative that they are unquestionable sources of Islamic legal system. Thus, they are sources from which Islamic law is directly derived. So what makes consensus (ijmā : whether of the Muslim community or of the scholars) such a compelling candidate for an additional source of the legal system as far as Sunnis are concerned? I contend that (1) the early jurists viewed this as the safest way to inoculate and safeguard that system (and the other sources) from individual abuse and personal manipulation and that (2) without consensus and why it was originally construed and framed (notwithstanding how it was applied) by the jurists, the Qur an and the Sunnah (despite their inherent religious and theological authority) would be meaningless or inadmissible as legitimate sources of law. But before I discuss consensus, I would like to address the two authoritative sources of law. All Muslims accept the Qur an as God s own words and therefore as the main source of the legal system (fiqh). Before the jurists began to deliberate and codify fiqh, the Shari ah was already embedded in the Qur an and Muslims were living their socio-religious and politico-economic lives in accordance with its teachings. Therefore, when the jurists were ready to put the laws into written form, they located all its original rules and expounded upon them. However, universal recognition differs from universal agreement on the meaning of specific injunctions. In addition, it certainly differs from the claim that the Qur an covers every foreseeable legal injunction, for it does not. For a variety of reasons, the the Sunnah, does not enjoy any universal authority, among them (1) Some Muslims have questioned how the Prophet s teachings have been preserved and passed on, (2) classical and modern scholars have raised serious doubts about the authenticity of certain hadiths, and
vi The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 33:4 (3) the existence of several versions of obviously credible ones raised questions as to what exactly the Prophet must have said or done. Early Muslims recognized the problem of fabrication and sought to weed out out spurious traditions and expose inauthentic narrators by focusing on the chain of transmitters instead of the text. Even if they were successful, that does not completely remove the core problem of risking or jeopardizing Islamic principles or guarantee any credibility for using the Sunnah to enact laws, because in matters of law only impeccable information can be used. Other problems raised are (1) whether all of the Companions, and by default their narrations, are equally trustworthy; (2) the fact that the Sunnah was written down so late; and (3) the acceptance of hadith transmission according to the sense (riwāyah bi al-ma nā). In fact, Muslims like Chiragh Ali (d. 1895), a follower of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898), and Mahmud Abu Rayyah, who wrote in 1958, felt that Sunnah can neither be relied upon nor used as a source of the legal system. 2 However, the overwhelming majority of Muslims have not only acknowledged its indispensability, but have also accepted that the early efforts to weed the hadith were effective and that there are more than enough authentic hadiths to legitimize the Sunnah s status. Consensus According to Imam al-shafi i, the so-called founder and master architect of jurisprudence, 3 consensus, as the third source of the legal system, is defined as the adherence of the congregation of Muslims to the conclusions of a given ruling pertaining to what is permitted and what is forbidden after the passing of the Prophet. 4 The jurists cite Q. 4:115 to justify or support consensus: If anyone opposes the messenger after guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a path other than that of the believers, We shall leave him on his chosen path and burn him in Hell, an evil destination. On the other hand, consensus derives its sanction from a statement ascribed to the Prophet: Indeed, my community will never agree on error (ḍalālah). 5 From the above definition, several points merit clarification. Consensus was not needed while the Prophet was alive. Besides, as a source of law himself (shāri ) through God s delegation (Q. 59:7), the Prophet did not need consensus in legal matters, and so it was not yet in effect. However, the Qur an did encourage him to consult others but only in world matters. Still, according to Q. 3:159, it was ultimately up to him to decide the issue and then rely upon God. Consensus must be arrived at, a priori, among a group of Muslims. But does this process have to literally involve all Muslims? Some scholars argue
Editorial vii that this was possible only among the Companions, for their numbers were relatively small and they could all be geographically accounted for. When that reality ended, some scholars interpreted consensus in any given region. When this was no longer feasible, it was further restricted to that of scholars of any given region. Wael Hallaq writes about the consensus of Iraqis in early Islam: Consensus extended in theory to all countries, but in practice it had a local character. On matters related to general practice, all Muslims were deemed to participate in forming consensus, whereas on technical points of the law, the scholars had the monopoly. 6 Madinah s scholars sometimes shared the belief in the universal consensus, but they limited consensus to the practice of their city, which was deemed binding and inerrant. Consensus is necessary only in jurisprudential matters. But given that the jurisprudential and legal domains encompass all aspects of life, jurists have to reach a consensus on what to do with those people who break the law and determine whether it is a punishable offence or crime. However, because some theological positions are subsumed under legal matters, consensus is expected for certain theological matters, such as belief in angels, without which one s belief cannot be considered complete (Q. 2:285 and Q. 2:177). More significantly, there has to be a consensus as to what the verses mean to the belief system and what their absence means to any Muslim. Consensus makes sense if it is a source through which law is derived, because unlike the Qur an and Sunnah it cannot be resorted to to locate the maxims and components with which to enact laws. Instead, strictly speaking, it is a mechanism through which, rather than a literal entity from which, laws are enacted. In this sense, it is a metaphorical source that relies upon the Qur an and Sunnah for its legal vitality and efficacy. Therefore without consensus, the understanding and application of the Qur an and the Sunnah would be delegitimized. Jurists find the Qur anic injunction, understand and analyze it, formulate the legal code, and then seek consensus to legitimize their understanding, analysis, and enactment of the law. The role ascribed to consensus would be limiting and constricting if it were applied strictly to wider Islamic learning, for it would mean that no scholar s opinion would be deemed valid until, at least, a majority of other scholars agreed with it. That is why it is not widely applied in that sense. Although an agreement on any issue and in any analysis is welcome, there has never been, nor should there be, a call for consensus in individual expressions and personal opinions, as a requisite for being accepted. In fact, Muslims have always anticipated divergent opinions and taken for granted the differences of analytical positions. The contents and methodologies of Tafsīr al-ṭabarī
viii The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 33:4 (d. 923), and the Tafsīr al-kabīr of Fakhr al-razi (d. 1209) and others are classic examples this. Finally, there was still room for different opinions and divergent positions even in the field of law. No matter how much the jurists disagreed, when it came to law there had to be consensus both in their understanding of the sources contents and their derivation of the applicable laws. This is where curtailing abuse and manipulation become important, for no scholar should try to impose his understanding on the rest. There were also other matters of debate, such as whose consensus should count as well as how wide or inclusive it should be. The formation of multiple schools of law and the acceptance of their opinions also indicated that consensus did not mean total agreement. In this case, it was construed as operating within the confines of each school. I think credit should be given to the early Sunni scholars and, by extension, to Islam for making consensus a source of the legal system. Although it may seem negligible for not being a real, tangible source, construing and framing it as a source of law indicates the understanding that a durable legal system needs a system of checks and balances. One of the anticipated positive consequences of this was the prevention of any abuse, monopoly, or manipulation of the texts of the Qur an and Hadith. Even though some verses are not easily subject to manipulation, numerous other ones are. Consensus, as a supporting source for the Qur an and Sunnah, guarantees that no one can unilaterally enact laws based upon his own understanding. And before consensus, other scholars will identify the incorrect understandings and conclusions and either correct or discard them. Scholars took consensus seriously. For instance, in some fiqh books the first thing that they do, even before beginning their discussions of legal chapters, is almost always cite their textual justification for it before addressing technical and practical matters. For example, he would justify the five daily prayers by first citing those verses that make them obligatory (e.g., Q. 4:103 and Q. 2:43) and then the relevant hadiths, such as the one that lists prayers as one of the five pillars. 7 He would conclude by stating that the entire Muslim community has reached consensus with regard to these specific prayers. But why should a scholar insist on citing consensus after having proved that prayers are sanctioned by the Qur an and Sunnah? The answer is to fortify his understanding of the Qur anic verses and Hadith, and his use of it with consensus, to prove that his conclusion is neither unique nor heretical. Given this reality, it stands to reason that in the domain of law, consensus may be more crucial to support one s understanding than one s quotation of the Qur an and Hadith. Unfortunately, in our own day Muslims seem to be ignoring this
Editorial ix mechanism of consensus, which would now be very easy to adopt due to technological advances, thereby allowing abundant space for the manipulation and abuse of Islamic texts and teachings. This Issue We begin this issue with Framing Political Islam: Syria s Muslim Brotherhood and the 2011 Uprising by Amir Abdul Reda. He argues that despite the remarkable evolution in the movement s cultural/ideological framing, it could not attract the military, the masses, and the religious minorities. Abdul Reda posits that its ideological shift toward non-violence and post-1982 reorientation toward democratic elections prevented its members from playing a leadership role. He concludes that these three crucial aspects illustrate how poor cultural/ ideological framing can doom an otherwise effective organization. Next is Norbani B. Ismail s Female Preachers and the Public Discourse on Islam in Malaysia. She analyzes Malaysia s activist female preachers recorded online lectures, radio talks, and interviews to identify their preaching styles and themes. Determining that they are trying to create a sound moral and ethical society by fulfilling their own moral and religious obligations, she opines that they adhere to the authorities rules and their society s norms so that they can continue to gain authority and trust from both the established religious authorities and the public. Ahmed Mabrouk follows with his A Model-based Semantic Network for Smart Representation and the Inference of Islamic Law. He introduces a novel hybrid approach for smart representation and the deduction of legal rulings, and also uses an uṣūl-based structure to represent the various elements of rulings across a multi-dimensional semantic network. Mabrouk argues that smart deduction engines provide compact codes of fiqh rules and deduce answers to the queries relevant to these rules. He also suggests that a fully computerized system that comprises a fiqh knowledge base and smart deduction engines can be developed. Finally, he delineates the proposed system s selective browsing, comparative analysis, deduction from fiqh rules, and fatwa assistance features. We close with Ibrahim M. Zein s Professional Ethics and the Education of Engineers at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He applies a methodic strategy to address (1) the discourse s theoretical aspect that utilizes textual strategies and content analysis and (2) the specific case of the IIUM s engineering faculty. Zain insists that his paper s main contributions deal with how to overcome predicaments in ethical sensibility, ward off dismissive ges-
x The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 33:4 tures, and distinguish between values and their realization in the everyday world. He argues that such a process enables the human agent to discover, rather than make, values and come to understand that ethical sensibility is not about truth and falsehood, butr ather about one s degree of realization. I hope that our readers will find these papers not only thought-provoking and stimulating, but also sources of inspiration and motivation for their own research. Endnotes 1. Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al-fiqh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 22. 2. L. T. Librande, Hadith, in The Encyclopedia of Religion (New York and London: Macmillan Publishing Company, n.d.), 6:149-150. 3. Hallaq, A History, 30 and 34. 4. Abdullah Saeed, Islamic Thought: An Introduction (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 49. 5. Sunan ibn Mājah, Kitāb al-fitan, hadith no. 3950. 6. Hallaq, A History, 20. 7. Ṣaḥīḥ al-bukhārī, Kitāb al-īmān, hadith nos. 8 and 4515; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, hadith no. 114; Sunan al-tirmidhi, hadith no. 2609; and Sunan Ibn Mājah, hadith no. 3973. Zakyi Ibrahim, Editor Comparative Religion Department California State University Fullerton zibrahim@fullerton.edu
IIIT Proudly Presents THE MIRACULOUS LANGUAGE OF THE QUR AN: EVIDENCE OF DIVINE ORIGIN Bassam Saeh PBK: $8.95 ISBN 978-1-56564-665-0 ebook: $4.50 Google Play / Google Books Pages: 99 This study illustrates why the language of the Qur an is miraculous, unique, and evidence of divine authority. The author compares the language of the Qur an with the language of pre-islamic poetry, the Prophet s words (hadith), and the language of the Arabs both past and present, to demonstrate that although the Qur an was revealed in Arabic, it was at the same time an Arabic which was entirely new. Original and early Muslim audiences viewed this as miraculous and responded to the Qur an s words, sounds, rhythms, etc. in a manner consistent with a deeper appreciation of its beauty and majesty which modern ears, trained by familiarity, and despite being surrounded by all manner of dictionaries and studies, are at a loss to capture. The author attempts to remove this veil and present the Qur an to readers as if hearing it for the first time, to bring to life some of this wonder. In doing so he guides readers to appreciate the beauty of the Qur an, to become more immersed in it, and to have a clearer understanding of its structure and flow. Devoting special attention to Surah Al Muddaththir, to underpin his analysis, Saeh thus brings the Revelation to life, demonstrating that each surah has distinct features and characteristics that make it stand out uniquely within the design and sweep of the whole. Dr. Bassam Saeh holds a BA in Arabic literature from Damascus University, Syria, and an MA & PhD in modern Arabic poetry from Cairo University. He has been Head of the Arabic Department in Tishreen University, Syria (1977) and has taught in a number of other universities, including: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Oxford. He was the founder and principal of Oxford Academy for Advanced Studies (1990 2005). He has been presenter of several radio and TV programs and author of several books. * * * IIIT Distributors: www.amazon.com islamicbookstore.com T: 410-675-0040 F: 410-675-0085 Kube Publishing Ltd. (UK) T: 0800 783 3146 F: 01530 249 656 Wholesale Orders: IIIT T: 703-230-2844 F: 703-471-3922 sales@iiit.org www.iiit.org
In this issue ARTICLES Framing Political Islam: Syria s Muslim Brotherhood and the 2011 Uprising Amir Abdul Reda Female Preachers and the Public Discourse on Islam in Malaysia Norbani B. Ismail A Model-based Semantic Network for Smart Representation and the Inference of Islamic Law Ahmed Mabrouk Professional Ethics and the Education of Engineers at the International Islamic University Malaysia Ibrahim M. Zein REVIEW ESSAY BOOK REVIEWS FORUM CONFERENCE, SYMPOSIUM, AND PANEL REPORTS
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In this issue ARTICLES Framing Political Islam: Syria s Muslim Brotherhood and the 2011 Uprising Amir Abdul Reda Female Preachers and the Public Discourse on Islam in Malaysia Norbani B. Ismail A Model-based Semantic Network for Smart Representation and the Inference of Islamic Law Ahmed Mabrouk Professional Ethics and the Education of Engineers at the International Islamic University Malaysia Ibrahim M. Zein REVIEW ESSAY BOOK REVIEWS FORUM CONFERENCE, SYMPOSIUM, AND PANEL REPORTS