First Khutbah – Main Points
يا قوم ادخلوا الأرض المقدسة التي كتب الله لكم ولا ترتدوا على أدباركم فتنقلبوا خسرين
قالوا يا موسى إن فيها قوما جابرين وإنا لن ندخلها حتى يخرجوا منها فإن يخرجوا منها فإنا داخلون
قال رجلان من الذين يخافون أنعم الله عليهما ادخلوا عليهم الباب فإذا دخلتموه فإنكم غالبون – وعلى الله فتوكلوا إن كنتم مومنين
“[Moses] said: ‘O’ my people! Enter the Holy City which God has ordained for you and do not turn your back on your tracks. If you do you will be made the losers’.
[His people] said: ‘O’ Moses! But there are powerful people in that city and we will never go in until they leave. If they leave then we will certainly go in’.
Two men amongst them who feared God said: ‘Enter upon them by way of the gate. If you do so you will be victorious’. And upon God you should rely if you are believers.” [Q: 5: 21-23]
What does it mean to rely upon God? Is tawakkul an individual endeavor or can it also have communal aspects as well? (continue reading here…)
First Khutbah – Main Points
Opening from the Qur’ān:
كل نفس ذآئقة الموت – و إنما توفَون أجورَكم يومَ القيامة – فمن زُحزِحَ عن النار و أُدخل الجنةَ فقد فاز – و ما الحيوة الدنيآ إلا متاع الغرور
“Every soul shall taste death. You will be recompensed your due on the Day of Rising. As for the one that is distanced from the fire and is admitted to the Garden – he has triumphed. And as for this life: it is just the enjoyment of delusion.” [Q: 3: 185]
I wish to open the khutbah today but discussing death. Modern life balks at an earnest discussion about death. It is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Popular culture propagates the illusion of eternal life with a hyper fixation on youth. The consequences are drastic. Not only are people unable to come to terms with the reality of death, it also has societal repercussions, namely the neglect of the elderly and the sick. Death is treated as an embarrassment – never to be looked in the eye. If Muslims are to not only adhere to lifestyles that are pleasing to God, but to engage in thought patterns that engender the type of reflection that leads to a God-pleasing lifestyle, then we must try and steer the discourse to include contemplation on our own deaths. (continue reading here…)
Traditional Muslim Thought
What is it and why is it important to think like a Muslim? The ability to be “aware” of things and to articulate that awareness in concepts, language, and even behavior that reinforces and appeases TMT, and ultimately, Islam/God [tawhīd, Prophecy and the Return to God].
This endeavor will always involve attempts to appease certain incontrovertible truths and transcendent values found in Islam. However, Islam itself will never look the same in two difference places or two different times. And this process of Muslim thought will always demand intelligence, creativity, and courage from Muslims in their efforts to realize this goal, both individually and collectively.
When speaking about TMT, this in no way implies that:
- Muslims never had to do this in times past. That it is just something particular and peculiar to this term “modernity” that is causing all this hubbub.
- In fact, if we were to look at the past [i.e., Muslim history] and see no such examples [and we are sure to see many!] it would have more to do with the dereliction of duty on the part of those scholars of the past than the absence of the necessity in TMT in every time and space.
So – is TMT just a historical curiosity? Is it relevant in any way to the issues that Muslims face today? If so, then part of this relevance must include a tahqīqī approach. This is especially crucial in light of the recent rebranding of the word “tradition” into such catch phrases as “Traditional Muslim knowledge”.
What Does Muslim Thought Address?
TMT addresses four major things:
- God.
- The cosmos.
- The human soul.
- Interpersonal relationships.
The first three form the basis of how reality is conceived in Islam. The fourth is from perceptions obtained through studying the first three in a human interaction paradigm.
Goals of Muslim Thought
To know the reality of lā ilāha illa Allah [there is no god but God] for oneself.
The defining of roles: taqlīd and tahqīq.
Taqlīd: if one wishes to be a member of a group, then one must learn from those who are already a part of that group. Prophetic narrative. No one can better perfect a method of making ablution than that of the Prophet.
Tahqīq: the process of coming to know and own the knowing of tawhīd/la ilaha illa Allah [there is no god but God].
Tawhīd: is outside of taqlīd as “there is no compulsion in faith” لا إآراه في الدين [Q: 2: 256]. Instead, taqlīd is trying to inculcate tawhīd through free-willed, internal/intellectual means.
Muslims need to realize that TMT’s raison d’être is the transformation of the human soul, not simply a collection of textual and historical facts.
TMT allowed for a multidisciplined approach but those branches were tied to a root [tawhīd].
Establish the primacy of The Sacred. Therefore, one needs to come to know and understand what is sacred to Muslims/Islam and what is sacred [if anything at all] to modernity.
Preservation of the human being. Modernity/secularism makes vain attempts at this through language such as freedom, democracy, human rights, efficiency, etc.
Ijtihād – What’s In A Name?
The word is used so much by modernist Muslim reformers that it’s lost any context and meaning.
- To qualify as a mujtahid, one had to master the disciplines [fiqh, etc.]. In other words, master transmitted knowledge [Qur’ān, Sunnah, etc.].
- This bar has been set very high in traditional Sunni schools of thought.
- If one does not attain the level of mujtahid, then one must then follow a school of ijtihād [Sunni: mostly dead masters – Shi’ism: living masters].
- Sharī’ah, for example, can only be learned from someone who already knows it. This is problematic for orthodox, Sunni Muslims if we’re only able to learn from dead people!
Challenges Facing Muslims/TMT Today
Modern Muslim scholarship has been dominated by a non-Muslim spirit of academia in which, only to be partly humorous, one can know everything there is to know about a text except what it’s saying.
Is it possible to think as an engineer or sociologist and still think in a tawhīd-ic mind frame?
How can Muslims/Islam come to really [and in mean real as from The Real] mean anything significant if religion, in the eyes of modernity, is scarcely tolerated so long as it is restricted to ritual and morality. In modernity, religion can have nothing definitive to say about the nature of reality.
When looking at the thought processes behind certain modes of thought or ‘isms, are they/can they be infused or synthesized /re-contextualized by TMT or no? Why/not?
Modern environments are not conducive to inculcating/reinforcing an outlook on the world based on tawhīd. Modern theories of knowledge seek to compartmentalize versus bring varying knowledge disciplines into a unifying vision. This compartmentalization applies to the self as well as knowledge. This leads to a kind of cultural/social schizophrenia [see Daryoush Shayegan]
Science/Scientism: science is often said to be a sign of God but the Qur’ān asks man to think/reflect. But think/reflect on what? The Qur’an emphasizes natural phenomena. Science, however, requires one to first have scientific training as well as accept the supremacy/hegemony that scientific/tistic thought often demands of us.
Modern Muslim thought/scholarship does not challenge the status quo of modern/takthīr thought but rather sees how it can best serve, adopted and co-opt it.
Takthīr – Modernity’s New Gods
Takthīr is, if not the theological opposite of tawhīd, is its antonym in a modern context. The function of tawhīd is to see the many as relating to The One. Takthīr is wanton proliferation.
Tawhīd: to make God one, the recognition of divinity, pointing back to one ultimate source [God].
Takthīr: to make many gods. To refashion the recognition of divine presence as manifold.
Modernity lacks a solid core – a single center of purpose. TMT professes the purpose of life is to realize/worship/prepare for the return to God.
Modernity’s goals [?]: freedom, equality, evolution, progress, science, medicine, nationalism, socialism, democracy, Marxism. More innocuous versions: care, communication, consumption, development, education, information, standard of living, management, model, planning, production, project, resource, service, system, welfare.
TMT & Modernity – A Dialog
TMT may question modernity’s and Muslim reformers’ intentions. And while MR’s may wish to bid “good riddance” to TMT because of its perceived baggage, reform-minded
Muslims are oblivious to the fact that much of what they’re basing their thoughts off of are based on modes of thought that at their core are antithetical to the three crucial aspects of TMT/Islam:
- Tawhīd.
- Prophecy.
- The Return to God [Ma’ād].
If Muslims are to remain true to the core values that Islam is built upon, those very same values that underpin TMT’ing, then how can the adaption of the above be legitimized?
Download the notes & mp3 audio.
First Khutbah – Main Points
Opening from the Qur’ān:
والذين يذكرون الله قياما وقعودا وعلى جنوبهم ويتفكرون في خلق السماوات والأرض – ربنا ما خلقت هذا باطلا سبحانك فقنا عذاب النار
“And those who remember God, either standing, sitting, as well as sitting on their sides and is given to frequent contemplation about the creation of the heavens and the earth respond: ‘O our Lord! You have not created this without purpose. You are without peer or similitude so protect us from the punishment of the Fire.” [Q: 3: 191]
I often hear in modern day discourses about Islam where it is regarded as a religion of actions and not words; deeds, not thought. Doubtless this comes from a reading of Islam from a particular Christian perspective; it too is also mistakenly seen as a religion of belief, not works. But Islam is a religion that seeks the middle way, encompassing both. This misconception has to some degree been perpetuated by Muslims themselves for a variety of reasons [minority status, reaction against Colonialism, etc.), but one of the primary reasons I would like to talk about today is the loss of Muslim thought. I say Muslim thought, versus Islamic thought, because this word [Islamic] has become a hollow word, or as Uwe Poerksen wrote in his book, Plastic Words: The Tyranny of a Modular Language, a plastic word. It can be taken wholly out of any appropriate context and used in those in which it denotes nothing what so ever, or worse, is used beyond its scope, reducing or even destroying any efficacy it might convey.
This is also problematic when we discuss the word sunnah. When you ask many Muslims to tell you what the Sunnah is, they usually begin by saying it was what the Prophet [s] did, said, and so forth. And while none of these are wrong, however, they fail to convey the nature of the Prophet – his Qur’ānic nature, as per A’ishah’s notable recount. And while we won’t have time today to cover all of the details, it’s the process of thinking anew, thinking deeper about ourselves and our relationship with Islam to produce a more meaningful Islam [or Muslim!], that will serve us as a guide in this life, headed for the Next. (continue reading here…)
The Islamic Literacy Series is a new program at the University of Pennsylvania aimed at increasing the level of understanding among Muslims about their own faith. Each week, a 50 minute class will be held on a different topic pertaining to Islam. A faculty of 5 instructors will introduce, explore and examine the richness and diversity of the Muslim past and present. The goal is that over the course of this series, students find answers, discover new questions, challenge conventions, appreciate tradition and gain a better grasp of who they are and what their faith means.
All classes will be held in Huntsman Hall, Room TBD. The classes will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on the dates listed below. Each class will begin promptly at 7:30 and will last for exactly 50 minutes. Faculty will be available for those who wish to stay after to ask more questions. All students are welcome to attend. If you are not a student, but would like to attend please contact Adnan Zulfiqar to request permission (azulfica@sas.upenn.edu).
SCHEDULE
October 14, 2009 (Wednesday): Discovering the Qur’an
Instructor: Adnan Zulfiqar
Description: This class introduces students to the various techniques used in the Qur’an to help convey meaning. Particular emphasis will be placed on how to better understand the Qur’anic language and the different schools of thought that have arisen to interpret the Qur’anic message.
October 20, 2009 (Tuesday): A Little Bit of Muslim Herstory
Instructor: Carolyn Baugh
Description: Since the beginning of Islam, Muslim women have made strong contributions to the story of Islam. This class explores the lives of a few of these strong and outspoken women, and asks how Muslim women today can capitalize on their stories to make their own voices heard.
October 28, 2009 (Wednesday): Spread of Islam in Africa
Instructor: Margari Hill-Manley
Description: This lecture explore Islam in Africa by providing the historical background to the development of Muslim societies and communities in Africa (Northern and sub-Saharan Africa). My aim is to complicate the dichotomy of Middle East and Africa by showing the ways in which sub-Saharan Africa has always been connected to the broader Muslim world.
November 4, 2009 (Wednesday): The Science of Tasawwuf (Sufism)
Instructor: Marc Manley
Description: What are its goals and objectives. An intorspection on what Sufism is “trying to get at” and how it can relate to the modern Muslim. A tie-in with a short bio piece and examples from Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s life.
November 10, 2009 (Tuesday): The Relevance of Muslim Thought in Modern Times
Instructor: Marc Manley
Description: A reading/lecture inspired by William Chittick’s Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. An introduction into the mechanics of Muslim thought and how/why it is important to “think like a Muslim” in the modern age.
November 18, 2009 (Wednesday): The Spirituality of Muslim Women
Instructor: Margari Hill-Manley
Description: This lecture explores Muslim women’s spiritual practices and notions of womanhood in Islam. The lecture looks at women in the Quran, the significance of Hagar’s plight in the hajj rituals, and notions of womanhood in Sufism. The aim is of the lecture is to recover the feminine voice in Islamic traditions.
December 2, 2009 (Wednesday): Introduction to the Mad’habs (Legal Schools of Thought)
Instructor: Sadik Kassim
Description: A brief introduction regarding the historical development of today’s major schools of thought, their similarities, and differences with respect to legal theory and practice.
December 9, 2009 (Wednesday): Islamic Medical Ethics
Instructor: Sadik Kassim
Description: Introduction to basic principles underpinning Islamic Medical Ethics. There will also be a brief discussion regarding Islamic perspectives on bioethical issues such as abortion, end-of-life care, euthanasia, stem cell research, fertility treatment, and organ donation. (continue reading here…)
