Protect your belief through clarity on key religious debates, both historical and contemporary. Understand where Muslims of different perspectives come from and learn how to deal with them with sincerity, confidence, and tact.
At-A-Glance
- Discover the major features of the most important classical and modern intellectual currents in the Muslim world that are relevant to our lives as Muslims today
- Recognize the historical circumstances that led to the spread of these intellectual currents
- Study the lives of the most important figures in these intellectual currents
- Precisely identify the points of conflict between these intellectual currents and Sunni Islam
- Establish the conclusions of Sunni Islam on these points of conflict
Who were the Mu`tazilites? Who was Ibn Taymiyya? What is Wahhabism? What is the origin of religious extremism? Who was al-Ghazali? Who was Ibn Sina? How did Greek philosophy enter Muslim lands? Is Sufism a Muslim sect? Who was Ayatollah Khomeini and what did he do? What is the difference between Sunnism and Shi`ism? What are the origins of extremism? What is moderate Islam? Should American Islam be different from Turkish, Arab, or other regional Islam’s?
The Muslim world has faced two intellectual upheavals in its lifetime–one when it met the Byzantine and Persian civilizations over a millennium ago, and another when it met modernity during the last three hundred years.
The first intellectual upheaval occurred in a time when flowing Muslim robes crowned with the Muslim turban were the hallmarks of intellectual sophistication and the Arabic language was the medium of culture and civilization.
In this context of dominance, Muslim civilization confidently engaged with Greek philosophy, Christianity, Judaism, Manichaeism, atheism, in sum, all of the intellectual currents of the age. The intellectual currents of the age were weighed against the light of revelation, what was good and right was accepted, and what was bad and wrong was discarded. Engagement with the good enriched Muslim civilization because ii imported wisdom; engagement with the bad enriched Muslim civilization because it buttressed revelation with an intellectual defense against falsehood.
From this critical engagement arose the Muslim intellectual traditions of theology, legal theory, logic, and philosophy, all of which affected and enriched the more scriptural disciplines of Koranic exegesis, hadith commentary, and Sacred Law. This was the formative period of the Muslim intellectual tradition and it created the fortress of traditional Islam, which remained impenetrable for over a millennium, creating a strong, stable and unified Muslim intellectual tradition from Andalusia in the West to China in the East.
This continued until the second intellectual upheaval in the 1700’s when Islam met modernity. This was a time of European dominance and occupation of Muslim lands. The colonial period is now over, but Western global dominance continues. Because of this context, prominent Muslim engagement with modernity has, by and large, occurred under the pressure of an inferiority complex.
This second intellectual upheaval is still in progress and the intellectual challenges of modernity have not yet been solved. Some argue that when this engagement is completed, the Islamic intellectual tradition will be again enriched, and will become stronger and more vibrant than it was before, reinvigorated by fresh perspectives. Others argue that Islam, like other religions before it, will succumb to modernity. Others argue otherwise. By the end of this course, students will make their own decisions regarding this question.
The historical personalities covered in this course will include the following: Jahm b. Safwan, Wasil b. `Ata’, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam al-Shafi`i, Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal, Abul Hasan al-Ash`ari, Ibn Sina, Ja`far al-Sadiq, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, Muhammad `Abduh, The Young Turks, Rashid Rida, Sayyid Qutb, Abul A`la Mawdudi, Muhammad b. `Abd al-Wahhab, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Part 1. Classical Muslim Sects
- Political Upheaval and Sectarian Dissension (the Shi`ites and the Khawarij)
- Engagement with Other Civilizations and Religions (the Murji’ites, Jahmites, Hashwiyya, and the Qadariyya)
- The Integration of Greek Philosophy (the Falasifa, Mu`tazilites, Ash`aris, and Maturidis)
- The Intellectual Codification of Sunni Islam
- Anti-Intellectualism and Fringe Hanbalism (Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya)
Part 2. Modern Muslim Thought
2A. Before the Dissolution of the Ottoman Caliphate
The Westernization of the Social Elite
The Spread of Civil Discord (Wahhabism and Nationalism)
2B. After the Dissolution of the Ottoman Caliphate
The Rise of Political Islam (Sayyid Qutb, Abul A`la Mawdudi, Khomeini)
Liberalism, Pluralism, and the Extremist Reaction
