Muslim/ non-muslim relations

[فداء الرسول]

II. METHODOLOGY

The basic methodology and assumptions of this paper are summed up as follows:

1. As a religious faith, normative Islam is not identical with the actions of its “followers”. Like other religions, followers or claimed followers are imperfect, fallible human beings. There are times when their actions conform, in various degrees, to the normative teachings of their faith. But there are also times when their actions are either independent of or even in violation of such normative teachings. Outsiders may see these offending acts as part of the practice of faith. Sometimes these acts are committed, falsely, in the name of faith. These claims are made as a result of ignorance, “sincere” misinterpretations or even deliberate misrepresentations that are intended to provide sanction and authority for such acts. Examples of that include attempting to justify or explain the killing of innocent non-combatants by making out-of-context references to the Qur’an. Similarly, there are those who justify bombing abortion clinics or killing and dispossessing the Palestinian people by making selective or out-of-context reference to the Bible. History of various religious communities is replete with such aberrations, even as it is replete also with successful implementation of the norms of their faiths. Human successes or failures are not always identical with ideal norms2.

2. To evaluate whether a given acts or argument conforms to the normative teachings or not, there must be some criteria of such evaluations; how are these norms to be identified? In the case of Islam, there is no dispute about its primary sources; the Qur’an and authentic [or sound] Hadeeth [or Sunnah]. The Qur’an, for Muslims, is God’s revelation to his final messenger to humankind, Prophet Muhammad [P]3. It is an imperative pillar of faith in Islam to accept the Qur’an as the verbatim word of God dictated to the Prophet by Gabriel [Jibreel], the Angel of Revelation. Being revelation in meaning as well as exact wording, the Qur’an is regarded by Muslims as the highest and final authority in learning about Islam and its stances on various issues and queries. Hadeeth refers to the words, actions and approvals of Prophet Muhammad [P] in matters relating to the teaching of the faith and its implementation. Hadeeth is similar to the Qur’an, being a form of revelation and hence a primary source of Islam. It is different, however, in the fact that it is a revelation in meaning only. The words of the spoken part of Hadeeth are the Prophet’s not God’s. Furthermore, the Qur’an is fully authentic and as it has been meticulously preserved by committing it to memory by masses of people, in addition to its preservation in writing from the very beginning. Hadeeth, on the other hand, varies with respect to its degrees of authenticity [soundness]. As such, Hadeeth must be understood in the light of the Qur’an and interpreted in a way that does not contradict any established Qur’anic principle. On the other hand Hadeeth serves also as elaborator, clarifier and explainer of the Qur’an. This means that the text of the Qur’an and relevant authentic Hadeeth in a given topic must be studied in an integrative manner.

Secondary sources of Islam include two generally agreed to sources as well as
Debatable sources. The generally agreed to sources are; a) Consensus of the
scholars on a given issue [Ijmaa`], and analogical deduction [Qiyaas]. Secondary
sources are not revelatory even though they are based on interpretations of
revelatory sources. While Ijmaa` and Qiyaas are more generally accepted, they
are themselves dependent upon the primary sources for their authority and
reasoning. Interpretations involve human judgment, and they may vary and are
fallible as well. This implies that a sound argument based on the Qur’an and
Hadeeth cannot be rejected on the grounds that the opinion of a scholar [s] is
Different from it or inconsistent with it. Errors of understanding and interpretations are possible and do occur. Yet, errors cannot be attributed to Allah and His revelation. It should be noted, however, that some traditional scholarly opinions [Ijtihaad] may be rejected, not because of a methodological error, but because of the fact that such opinions were partly shaped by the special circumstances and historical setting of their times. Such circumstances may differ significantly from those in today’s world. In all cases, opinions are to be judged by the primary sources, not the reverse. It may be helpful to note that there is no single person or authority in Islam whose interpretation of any debatable issue is seen or accepted as the only valid one, let alone being viewed on a par with the texts of the Qur’an and Hadeeth.