A General Outlook at Islamic Rituals (original) (raw)
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The Second Pillar of Islam: Rethinking the Replacement of Ethics by Rituals in Islam
Traditional exegesis and jurisprudence rest on premises. A premise is an assertion that provides a pillar of the analysis. Premises take the form of presuppositions. These presuppositions could be in accord with, indifferent to, or in defiance of a discourse a particular exegesis endeavors to articulate. As a matter of principle, all presuppositions in the exegesis of revelation should be derived from revelation, should be in agreement with it. If for any reason a particular presupposition veers from or defies revelation, the analysis based upon that presupposition becomes flawed and requires being rehabilitated or rejected. This transpired with several presuppositions of traditional exegesis and jurisprudence. They include the perceptions that revelation is flawed because it is “unclear,” “incomplete,” and “incoherent.” These presupposition emerged as a result of the reticence to use reason in acquiring knowledge of revelation. They paved the way for recourse to a flawed exegesis, based on a misunderstanding and even defiance of the teaching of revelation, viz. that revelation is “clear,” “complete,” and “coherent.” Hence the entire edifice of traditional exegesis and jurisprudence requires being re-constructed, this time on the basis of presuppositions that are in agreement with what they seeks to “explain,” the teaching of revelation. Further tenets also veer from revelation. They encompass the perception that tradition is revelation, that reason is subordinate to tradition, the assumption that isnad matter more than matn in the verification of traditions, the teaching of predestination, the teaching of abrogation, the teaching of jihad al-talab, and the perception that the globe is a battlefield between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb. The premises that tradition is revelation, that it judges, abrogates and is able to replace revelation are particularly problematic because they are expressions of scriptural and juristic shirk. Thus, the greatest weakness of traditional exegesis is its adulteration by procedural shirk. The greatest weakness of traditional jurisprudence is its adulteration by juristic shirk. This adulteration renders traditional exegesis and jurisprudence problematic and ill-equipped to provide reliable scriptural and juristic analysis.
Unpublished paper, 2013
This paper examines the role of Islamic bodily rituals in the construction of Muslim identity. Specifically, three types of Islamic bodily rituals will be analyzed in this paper: salat, sawm and hajj. These three types of Islamic rituals are chosen deliberately as an explicit example of the bodily rituals in Islam. The first section of this paper reviews the concept and definition of religion, and the important role of the sacred and the profane in religion in relation to bodily rituals. The second section discusses the theoretical framework of the body in relation to the conceptual thoughts of bodily ritual and ritualization. The third section focuses on the dimensions of Islamic bodily rituals and the concept of identity. Finally, the fourth section analyzes the important role of Islamic bodily rituals in the construction of Muslim identity.
Ibadat, the Body and Identity: Islamic Rituals and the Construction of Muslim Identity
The Journal of Society & Media, 2017
This paper examines the role of Islamic rituals in the construction of Muslim identity. Specifically, three types of Islamic rituals will be analyzed in this paper: salat, sawm and hajj. These three types of Islamic rituals are chosen deliberately as an explicit example of the embodied rituals in Islam. Catherine Bell’s ideas of ritual and ritualization, and Harvey Whitehouse’s concept of modes of religiosity will be utilized as a frame of analysis. The first section of this paper reviews the concept and definition of religion, and the important role of the Sacred and the Profane in religion. The second section specifically discusses Bell’s conceptual thoughts of ritual and ritualization. The third section focuses on the dimensions of Islamic rituals and the concept of identity. Finally, the fourth section analyzes the dynamic role of Islamic rituals in the construction of Muslim identity by using ritual and ritualization theory, and modes of religiosity theory as a means of analysis.
In this essay we will present two texts from the Sufi literature that may contribute to the study of Islamic practice. The only existing extensive translations of writings concerning the spiritual meaning of ritual prayer in Islam being those of a chapter of the Ihyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn of al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) by M. Holland and of the al-Futūhāt al-Makkiyya of Ibn al-‘Arabī, the purpose is to enrich the doctrinal spectrum of the subject and to show that the interpretations of Salāh are in fact developments of its original meanings as they appear in the Qur’ān and in the Hadith literature. The essay hops thus to contribute to the debate concerning the genuine Islamic origin of Muslim spirituality such as it has been initiated by such scholars as L. Massignon and P. Nwyia in the fields of terminology and hermeneutics respectively. We do certainly not pretend to treat this subject in an exhaustive way, the objective being rather to highlight that Islamic practice far from constitutes a closed system of predefined norms devoid of any interpretative potential, but, on the contrary, represents a dynamic reference which has never ceased to inspire Muslim thought in a creative way. The introductory part of this paper will be treating the fundamental ideas as to what constitutes the significance of ritual prayer in the Qur’ān and secondly in the sayings of the Prophet. Without getting too much into details, our main concern will be to develop further some key issues highlighted in the article of The Encyclopedia of Islam. The second and main part begins with an extract from a contemporary fiqh treatise, introducing the presentation of a selection of extracts from the writings of two illustrious Sufi authors which, despite of their interest, have not yet been translated. The texts of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī (d. 279/892) and of Aḥmad Ibn ‘Ajība (d. 1224/1809) have been chosen, because of their originality and secondly because of the historical and geographic distance that separates them, which shows thus that interpreting Islamic practice has never ceased to preoccupy Muslim thinkers of any cultural background
The Status of Rituals among the Audiences of the Iranian Islamic Reformists
The religious intellectualism is one of the active intellectual current in the Iran which has been criticized in different ways. One of the critical aspects is how to deal with rituals and religious' practices. Most of these criticisms are general and theoretical without regard to the audiences. The issue of this research is the ritual of audiences and their understandings' and perceptions'. This research was performed with qualitative methods and techniques of observation, interview, study the speech of religious intellectuals and finally analysis of all data content. Husseiniye Ershad, one of the most important religious intellectual bases, had been chosen and the intellectuals who were active there in 2000-2010 and their audiences' had been studied. The results show religious intellectuals have imprecise stance about ritual which can be because of response to the current formalism in country, limitation in accumulation and use of media, and not having clear pattern. The most important internal reason is not having clear pattern about ritual, and it can be explained with some arguments; first, criticism of formalism and originality of the content of religion and therefore trivialized form of religion, second, individualism and importance of individual choosing and directly relationship with God, and finally, rationalism which has created utilitarianism, goal oriented and original oriented.
Islamic Life and Thought chapter3
In the tension between tradition and modernism, one of the most acute problems faced by the contemporary Muslim is the relationship between the Shari'ah, and especially the parts belonging to the domain of personal law, and modem theories and legal practices. However, being neither a jurisprudent or faqih in the traditional sense, nor an advocate in the modern one, but rather a student of Islam and Islamic civilisation in its intellectual and spiritual aspects, we feel it our duty to confine ourselves to the analysis and clarification of the general principles which underlie the very issue implied by the subject of this essay. The discussion of their detailed application we leave to those more competent in matters of jurisprudence.