{"id":16636,"date":"2015-01-05T10:02:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T17:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=16636"},"modified":"2015-01-05T10:02:07","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T17:02:07","slug":"reforming-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/reforming-islam.html","title":{"rendered":"Reforming Islam?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Al-Azhar, in Cairo, the venerable medieval mosque and university where President al-Sisi\u2019s speech was given<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For most Muslim scholars (certainly in the Sunni world), the \u201cgate of ijtihad<\/em>\u201d closed somewhere around the beginning of the 900s AD.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What does this mean? \u00a0Ijtihad<\/em> \u2014 from the same Arabic triliteral root as jihad<\/em> \u2014 means, roughly, \u201cindependent interpretation.\u201d \u00a0So what is meant is that the fundamental questions of Islamic jurisprudence had been settled by the dawning of the tenth century.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never approved of this. \u00a0(As if my opinion about such things, I being\u00a0a non-Muslim, matters or should<\/em> matter!)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can easily understand believers refusing to challenge the Prophet Muhammad. \u00a0In Muslim belief, he came with divine authority. \u00a0To cast away his words would thus be, to a substantial extent, to sever the Islamic world\u2019s connection to God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the legal thinkers of the first three Islamic centuries after him (that is, up to about 900 AD) were simply mortal men. \u00a0They received, and claimed, no revelation. \u00a0They may have been \u2014 I think they were \u2014 overwhelmingly good, sincere, faithful, intelligent men. \u00a0Even brilliant men. \u00a0But I\u2019m not sure why their opinions should be privileged, sacrosanct, above the views of good, sincere, faithful, and brilliant Muslim scholars\u00a0today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furthermore, essentially freezing Islamic law in the 900s AD makes it difficult for the Islamic community, the umma<\/em>, to adjust to changing cultural and historical realities. \u00a0 Not impossible<\/em>, of course. \u00a0Whatever the theory may be, it\u2019s unavoidable\u00a0in practice for judges and religious thinkers\u00a0to reason independently. \u00a0They cannot avoid it. \u00a0But a principle declaring that they shouldn\u2019t do so can bind them in potentially unfortunate ways.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other hand . . .<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any religious faith, any culture, that wants to maintain its identity must avoid cutting itself off altogether from the source<\/em> of that identity. \u00a0The United States Supreme Court and other federal judges, in my opinion, has sometimes gone too far beyond the \u201coriginal intent\u201d of the framers of the Constitution; I consider it a serious problem when judges feel themselves authorized to (as the catchphrase goes) \u201clegislate from the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, in legal matters as in very many others, there\u2019s a tension between faithfulness to one\u2019s history and openness to the future. \u00a0And that tension should be maintained. \u00a0It can be minimized or eliminated, of course, either by simple and slavish imitation of the past or by cutting oneself adrift from that past and floating away, untethered. \u00a0Both extremes are wrong and dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it seems to me \u2014 again, speaking as an outsider who has no rights in the matter, but also as someone\u00a0who cares a great deal, and who wishes the best for his friends and for a great and rich civilization that he admires very much \u2014 that the time is long overdue for Muslims to examine some common Islamic ideas and practices to see whether they\u2019re really consistent with the fundamental principles of the Qur\u2019an.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I frankly think that it\u2019s always<\/em> time, in every<\/em> generation, to perform such an examination. \u00a0And not only for Muslims. \u00a0To borrow a Latin phrase from yet another<\/em> religious tradition: \u00a0The great Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth declared, in 1947, that Ecclesia semper reformanda est<\/em>. \u00a0 \u201cThe Christian church is always reforming itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Semper reformanda<\/em>. \u00a0It\u2019s a good principle for every culture, for every organization, and for every individual. \u00a0Constantly checking to see whether or not we\u2019re still on course.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, with that lengthy prologue in mind, I was fascinated this morning to see a little item about a speech given by the president of Egypt:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/blogs\/firstthoughts\/2015\/01\/president-sisis-speech<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I understand the potential dangers here. \u00a0Who knows what forces might be unleashed? \u00a0It was similar concerns that led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make amending the Constitution difficult, to make it hard to call a new Constitutional Convention. \u00a0But they didn\u2019t make it\u00a0impossible<\/em>. \u00a0 Revisiting fundamental cultural, religious, and legal principles shouldn\u2019t be done lightly, on a whim. \u00a0It requires care. \u00a0But, for a living body of thought, a living culture, it\u2019s a necessity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I think it\u2019s an urgent necessity for Muslims today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 For most Muslim scholars (certainly in the Sunni world), the \u201cgate of ijtihad\u201d closed somewhere around the beginning of the 900s AD. \u00a0 What does this mean? \u00a0Ijtihad \u2014 from the same Arabic triliteral root as jihad \u2014 means, roughly, \u201cindependent interpretation.\u201d \u00a0So what is meant is that the fundamental questions of Islamic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReforming Islam?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    For most Muslim scholars (certainly in the Sunni world), the "gate of ijtihad" closed somewhere around the beginning of the 900s AD.  \" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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