Overview

The umma is in trauma. Its knowledge of revelation was corrupted by a rendition of revelation, recalibrated to provide a justification for wars of aggression, prohibited in revelation. Furthering the empire-building aspirations of hawkish rulers required the weaponization of jurisprudence and exegesis. This was furnished by jurists engaged for the purpose. The re-articulation of Islam as a teaching of war required a turn from revelation to tradition. The ""turn"" was buttressed by the recording of traditions. The recording of traditions was justified by the assertion that tradition, too, was ""revelation from God."" It was also justified by the assertion that the Book of Allah required ""clarification"" and ""detailing"" by traditions. After its inauguration as ""revelation from God,"" tradition ascended further to a ""judge"" of revelation. This treats traditions as ""judges"" of the Book of Allah. It gets worse. According to the traditionalists, traditions also possesses the ""authority"" to ""abrogate"" and ""replace"" parts of revelation. The weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence was further justified by assertions that revelation is in parts ""unclear,"" ""insufficiently detailed"" and ""contradictory."" The weaponization of revelation was expedited by recourse to the teaching of abrogation of all verses of reconciliation and the treatment of jihad al-talab as a requirement of the faith. Jihad al-talab - as a sixth pillar of Islam - would be waged in endless wars of the ""abode of peace"" against the ""abode of disbelief."" The turn from revelation to tradition represents a reorientation from the revelation-centric paradigm to a tradition-centric paradigm. The weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence rendered wars of aggression lawful, even treating them as a requirement, a sixth pillar of Islam. But the Book of Allah proscribes all aggression. The teaching of abrogation represents a tampering with the teaching of revelation. Recourse to the teaching of abrogation, endeavoring to provide a ""justification"" for aggression, was aided by the repression of reason. The prohibition of reasoning was justified by recourse to a tradition which treats the use of reason to understand revelation as kufr. This tradition provided the basis for the repression of reason. There was a war on reason. 5000 philosophers were put to the sword in 786 by Musa al Hadi, as reported by Suyuti, in the first part of the mihna (inquisition) begun by al-Mahdi in 780. This purge is rarely acknowledged by traditionalists. The mihna had all the hallmarks of a ""Reign of Terror,"" taking place in the Muslim world a millennium before it transpired in Europe in 1792 during the French Revolution. The war against reason was ""intellectual suicide."" It enfeebled the umma and dispatched it into an intellectual ICU, ""intensive care unit."" By refusing to engage reason in religion, preachers withdrew from the ranks of the mukallafun, rational and responsible persons, in full possession of their reason. They thereby rendered themselves ill-equipped to engage rationally with Islam. The repression of reason was reinforced by shutdown of ijtihad and recourse to unquestioning following known as taqlid. It was reinforced by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's attack on rationality. The rejection of causality, entailed by the repression of rationality, also ended empirical enquiry. It plunged the umma into a tailspin of backwardness. The repression of reason, and the resulting backwardness, rendered the umma defenceless against assaults by foreigners with better military technology. The rejection of causation, entailed by the repression of reason, triggered the proliferation of determinism. The teaching of predestination rendered the umma resigned to its ""fate."" Renewal will require a return to revelation, the rehabilitation and reengagement of thought and the desacralization of tradition. Above all, it is necessary to affirm the preeminence of revelation.

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