What Is Traditional Islam
Tradition means truths or principles of a
divine origin revealed or unveiled to mankind.
In the case of Islam, tradition describes
furthermore the words, sayings and actions reported from Prophet Muhammad may
Allah bless him and grant him peace, which have been recorded in the hadith
collections together with the entire Islamic religion, such as the Islamic
schools of law, spirituality, saintity, etc.
Islamic Tradition Not Equal “Fundamentalism:”
What Is Traditional Islam?
edited from Islam In The Modern World, S. H.
Nasr [fn1]
“Two centuries ago, if Westerners (or
others)... were to study Islam, they would have encountered but a single
Islamic tradition.” Although there also were numerous schools of thought and
interpretations, and both orthodoxy and heterodoxy in belief as well as in
practice, they would however all “have belonged in one degree or another to the
Islamic tradition; that is, to that single tree of Divine Origin whose roots
are the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet of Islam, or Hadith,” a body of
tradition that has grown from those roots over some fourteen centuries in
nearly every inhabited quarter of the globe.
Modernism
“Then, some two hundred years ago, the main
waves of modernism began to reach the shores of the Abode of Islam (dar
al-islam) and with the passage of time gradually inundated them.”
One can see how modernist influences
penetrated into the Islamic world from the turn of the 19th century AD (13th H)
first in “military science, astronomy, and medicine,” then “in education,
sociopolitical thought, and law and, somewhat later, in philosophy, architecture,
and many of the arts.” ...
“For
anyone who understood the essence of modernism based on and originating in the
secularizing and humanistic tendencies of the European Renaissance, it was easy
to detect the confrontation that was already taking place between traditional
and modern elements in the Islamic world.”
“Fundamentalism”
“Only during the past few decades has a new
phenomenon appeared that necessitates distinguishing rigorously between
traditional Islam and not only modernism, but also that spectrum of feeling,
action, and thought that has come to be identified by Western scholarship and
journalism as “fundamentalist,” revivalist, or 'activist' Islam.”
Whereas much of earlier “fundamentalism,” “was
still orthodox, and not a complete departure or deviation from traditional
norms, ... today, however, alongside the modernist trend, which stands against
traditional Islam, there is a whole series of so-called fundamentalist
movements that speak of reviving Islam in opposition to modernism and 'Western
civilization,' ... but that are also not traditional and in fact stand opposed
to traditional Islam in basic ways. It is, therefore ... crucial to distinguish
these movements that have come to be called the 'new fundamentalism,' or simply
'Islamic fundamentalism,' from traditional Islam, with which they are often
confused. ”
Anyone “who has read works of a traditional
nature on Islam [fn2] and compared them to those championed by the current
“fundamentalists” can immediately discern basic differences between them, not
only in content, but also in the whole 'climate' in which they breathe,”
although “what is branded as “fundamentalism” includes a wide spectrum,” parts
of which are close to the traditional interpretation of certain aspects of
Islam, such as jurisprudence.
“But
the main thrust of that type of politico-religious movement now called
“fundamentalism,” a term that precisely because of its ambiguity is quite
problematic and would have been avoided if possible, is so basically different
from traditional Islam as to warrant the sharp distinction drawn between them
here, despite the existence of certain areas where some types of”
“fundamentalism” and certain dimensions of traditional Islam might be in
accord.
Tradition
The term 'tradition' which is used here was
re-discovered by René Guénon (Shaykh Abd Al Wahid Yahya)[fn5] a term which
“implies both the Sacred as revealed to humanity through revelation and the
unfolding and development of that sacred message in the history of the
particular human community for which it was destined.”
With the onslaught of modernism and more
recently the appearance upon the scene of that caricature of tradition called
'fundamentalism,' it is now necessary to define universally Tradition.
Tradition is has then three aspects: - al-dín (religion, ie. what embraces all
aspects of life) al-sunnah (that which - while based upon sacred models - has
become tradition as this word is usually understood) and al-silsilah (the
chain, “that links each period, episode, or stage of life and thought in the
traditional world to the Origin, as one sees so cleariy in Sufism, which
represents most of the esoteric and mystical dimension of Islam.”
Tradition implies the sacred, the eternal, the
immutable Truth, the perennial [fn3] wisdom as well as the continuous
application of its immutable principles to various conditions of space and
time.[fn4]
“What is directly opposed to tradition is
anti- and countertradition, to which we shall turn later, and of course
modernism, which is antitraditional by nature and without whose existence there
would in fact be no need for the usage of such a term as 'tradition.'”
If those who follow tradition “insist on the
complete opposition between tradition and modernism, it is precisely because
modernism, understood as a distinct worldview and paradigm, either denies
truths of a religious or metaphysical nature or creates in the religious and
metaphysical realms a blurred image within which half truths appear as the
truth itself, thereby compromising the integrity of all that tradition
represents.”
Qurán
“The significance of traditional Islam can be
understood more clearly in light of its attitude toward various facets of
Islam. Traditional Islam accepts, of course, without any ifs, ands, or buts the
Noble Quran in both content and form as the Word of God, ... uncreated in its
essence and without temporal origin, including “the traditional commentaries on
the Quran” and it interprets the Sacred Text not on the basis of the literal
meaning alone or by the use of individualistic linguistic or historical
reasoning, but on the basis of the long tradition of hermeneutics going back to
the Blessed Prophet himself MHMD and relying upon oral transmission as well as
written commentaries ... up to the present day.
Hadíth
“As for Hadíth, again the traditional school
accepts the orthodox collection” Prophetic hadith. Traditional Islam is willing
to consider the criticism brought forth against spurious hadíth by modern
critics, “but it is not willing to accept unquestioningly the premise upon
which modem criticism is based, namely, the denial of the penetration of the
Sacred into the temporal order. Traditional Islam believes in divine
revelation, the reality of oral transmission, and the possibility of knowledge
by the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) on the basis of direct access to the Source of all
knowledge rather than from purely human agents of transmission.” ...
“The traditional perspective always remembers
the famous principle of Islamic philosophy, that 'adam al-wijdán lá yadullu
'ala 'adam al-wujúd, that is, 'The nonexistence of awareness of something is
not proof of its nonexistence,'” so also the assumption that what has left no
traces in written records does not exist, is rejected by traditional Islamic
scholarship.
Sharí`ah Includes The Exoteric And Esoteric
Sciences
“Traditional Islam defends completely the
Sharí`ah, or Divine Law, as it has been understood and interpreted over the
centuries and as it has been crystallized in the classical schools (madháhib)
of Law and considers following it to be obligatory for all Muslims. Moreover,
it accepts the possibility of giving fresh views (ijtihád) on the basis of
traditional legal principles, which themselves provide the means of applying
the Law to newly created situations, but always according to such traditional
legal principles as qiyas (analogy), ijma' (consensus of opinion), istihsán
(judicial preference), and so forth.” [fn6]
“Moreover, for traditional Islam, all morality
is derived from the Quran and Hadíth and related, in a more concrete manner, to
the Sharí`ah. As far as Sufism, or the taríqah, is concerned, traditional Islam
considers it the inner dimension or heart of the Islamic revelation, without
denying either the state of decadence, in the sense of falling below or
deviating from the traditional norms of doctrine and practice, into which
certain Sufi orders have fallen over the centuries or the necessity of
preserving the truths of Sufism only for those qualified to receive them.”
“The attitude of traditional Islam toward
Sufism reflects the view that was current during the centuries prior to the
advent of puritanical and modernist movements in the twelfth/eighteenth
century, namely, that it is the means for the attainment of sanctity for those
wishing to encounter their Creator here and now and not a teaching meant to be
followed by all members of the community.” ...
“Nor does the traditional perspective overlook
the disagreement that has existed between certain representatives of the
exoteric and esoteric dimensions of Islam over the centuries. In fact, this
disagreement is understood as necessary in light of the nature of the Islamic
revelation and the condition of the human community to which the revelation has
been addressed. The traditional school therefore confirms and reiterates the
view of authorities such as Abú Hamid al-Ghazzálí, in the Sunni world, and
Shaykh Bahá' al-Dín al-'Ámilí, in the Shí`ite world, recognized religious
authorities who have been masters of both the exoteric and esoteric sciences
and who have defended both dimensions of Islam while explaining why the
esoteric comprehends the exoteric, but the exoteric excludes and does not
comprehend the esoteric.” [fn7]
While there was disagreement between different
schools ... “all these various ways of thinking belonged nevertheless to the
traditional universe.“ Moreover, those who follow the Islamic tradition “do not
defend only one school at the expense of others, but insist on the value of the
whole intellectual tradition of Islam in all of its authentic manifestations
with full awareness of different degrees of universaiity expressed by them,
since all of these manifestations have issued from the teachings of the Islamic
revelation.”
Art And Architecture
“As far as traditional Islamic art and
architecture are concerned, traditional Islam insists upon their Islamicity and
their relation to the inner dimension of the Islamic revelation, as they are
crystallizations of the spiritual treasures of the religion in visible or
audible form. [Followers of the Tradition] insist upon the fact that religion
possesses not only a truth, but also a presence, and that the barakah emanating
from Islamic art and architecture is as essential for the survival of the
religion as a whole as the Sharí`ah itself. ... One cannot simply neglect the
significance of Islamic art and architecture by insisting only upon the legal
and ethical aspects of the religion.”
“From the Quranic revelation there issued not
only regulations for how human beings should act, but also the principles
according to which they should make things. Islamic art and architecture are
directly related to Islamic spirituality,[fn8] and ... those who follow the
Islamic tradition are “opposed to all the ugliness that is now invading the
Islamic world in the form of urban design and architecture, artifacts, dress,
and the like, an invasion accepted by both modernists and 'fundamentalists' in
the name of compassion for human beings, expediency, and concern for the
material welfare of society, with total indifference to beauty.” ...
“According to the well-known hadíth, God, who
is also the Truth (al-Haqq), is beautiful and loves beauty.[fn15] ... Beauty
represents the aspect of presence in religion, as doctrine represents the truth.
Yet the greatest masterpieces of Islamic art appear insignificant to both
modernists and 'fundamentalists,' and their view concerning the spiritual
significance of Islamic art seems nearly identical.”
“If one camp now produces mosques that look
like factories except for a pseudominaret or dome added superficially merely to
signal the building's function, the other is known to have declared that it
makes no difference whether Muslims pray in the most beautiful Mogul or Ottoman
mosque or a modern factory, as if all Muslims were already saints and not in
need of the external support from those traditional forms that act as vehicles
for the flow of Muhammadan barakah to the individual and the community.” ...
Economics
“In economics, realism is never sacrificed in
favor of an unrealizable idealism, nor is it thought possible to inculcate the
virtues of hard work, honesty, frugality, and generosity simply by external
force or pressure.” [fn9]...
Politics
“In the political domain, the traditional
perspective always insists upon realism based on Islamic norms. In the Sunni
world historically it accepted the classical caliphate and, in its absence,
other political institutions, such as the sultanate, which developed over the
centuries in light of the teachings of the Sharí`ah and the needs of the
community. Under no condition, however, does it seek to destroy what remains of
traditional Islamic political institutions, which are controlled by traditional
restraints, in the hope of installing another Abu Bakr or 'Umar, but meanwhile
settling for some form of dictatorship by an army officer.”
It is therefore plain to see that nowhere does
“the veneer of Islamicity (that covers so many movements claiming a revival of
Islam) wear more thinly than in the field of politics. There, while calls are
made to return to the origin of Islam, the pure message of the Quran, and the
teachings of the Prophet MHMD and to reject all that is modern and Western, one
ends up by adopting all the most extreme political ideas that have arisen in
Europe since the French Revolution, but always portraying them as the purest
and most unadulterated of Islamic ideas.”
“In the name of a supposedly pure Islam prior
to its early adulteration by the Omayyads,” one then defends secular
revolution, republicanism, and ideology ... “but rarely bothers to inquire
whether the Quran or Hadith ever used those terms, why a movement that claims
Islamicity is so direly in need of such concepts of Western origin, or indeed
why the attack against traditional Muslim political institutions coincides so
'accidentally' with those of the left in the modern 'Western world'.”
Tradition, Pseudotradition And
Countertradition
“It is essential to remember that, at this
moment in human history, one must distinguish, in all religions and
civilizations as well as Islam, not only between the traditional and the
modern, but also between authentic tradition and pseudotradition, which is
antitraditional and now more and more countertraditional, but which also
displays certain characteristics outwardly similar to the traditional.”
“As far as the Islamic world is concerned,
these distinctions appear clearly once one is able to distinguish between the
traditional, as here defined, and that pseudotraditional perspective that is
often identified with one form or another of “fundamentalism.“ This type of
phenomenon, while claiming to restore Islam to its original purity, is in fact
creating something very different from the traditional Islam that was brought
by the Prophet MHMD and that has survived and grown like a living tree during the
fourteen centuries since his migration to Medina.”[fn10]
“These differences between the traditional and
the anti- or countertraditional in Islam become clearer once the traditional is
compared to the “fundamentalist“ in specific fields.[fn11] The traditionalist
and the “fundamentalist“ meet in their acceptance of the Quran and Hadith as
well as in their emphasis upon the Sharí`ah, but even here the differences
remain profound as far as interpretations are concerned.”
“As already mentioned, tradition always
emphasizes the sapiential commentaries and the long tradition of Quranic
hermeneutics in understanding the meaning of the verses of the Sacred Text. So
many of the “fundamentalist“ movements, however, simply pull out this or that
verse from the Quran and give it a meaning in accordance with their goals and
aims, often reading into it a meaning alien to the whole tradition of Quranic
commentary, or tafsír.”
“As for the Sharí`ah, tradition always
emphasizes, in contrast to so much of current “fundamentalism,“ faith, inner
attachment to the dicta of the Divine Law, and lenient judgment based upon the
imperfections of human society,[fn12] rather than simply external coercion
based on fear of some human authority, some authority other than God.”
Modern Science And Technology
“Outside of this domain, the differences
between the traditional and the anti- and countertraditional in Islam are even
more blatant. Most of the current “fundamentalist” movements, while denouncing
modernism, accept some of the most basic aspects of modernism. This is clearly
seen in their complete and open-armed acceptance of modern science and
technology.”
“Many of them even seek a quranic basis for
modern man's domination and destruction of nature by referring to the Quranic
injunction to the human being to 'dominate' (taskhír) the earth, as if the
human being addressed in the Quran were not the servant of God ('abd Alláh) and
God's vicegerent on earth (khalífat Alláh), but rather the modern consumer.”
“They engage in lengthy arguments to
demonstrate how Islamic science served as the necessary background for and made
possible the creation of Western science despite Christianity, completely
disregarding the fact that the nature and character of Islamic science are
entirely different from those of modern science.”[fn13]
“Their attitude toward science and technology
is in fact nearly identical with that of the modernists, as seen on the
practical plane in the attitude of Muslim countries with modern forms of
government compared to those that claim to possess one or another form of
Islamic government. There is hardly any difference in the manner in which they
both try to blindly adopt modern Western technology, from computers to
television, without any thought for the consequences of these inventions upon
the minds and souls of Muslims.”
Knowledge
“This common attitude is in fact to be found
in the domain of knowledge in general. The process of the secularization of
knowledge that has occurred in the West since the Renaissance, (running counter
to) all traditional Islamic teachings concerning “science“ (al-`ilm), is not
only taken for granted as a sign of progress by the modernists, but is also
hardly even noticed by the “fundamentalists.“ By simply equating modern forms
of knowledge with al-`ilm, the latter claim to follow the injunctions of Islam
in their espousal of modern science, rarely asking themselves what kind of 'ilm
it was that the Blessed Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) instructed his followers to seek from the
cradle to the grave.”
“Nor do they pause to ponder what the real
implications are of the famous saying, sometimes attributed to 'Alí ibn Abí
Tálib, “I become the slave of him who teaches me a single word.“ Could this
'word' possibly be a term pulled out of a chemistry dictionary or one drawn from
some computer language?”[fn14]
“The real nature of much of “fundamentalist”
thought in its relation to modernism is made evident in the whole question of
the process of the secularization of knowledge in the West and the adoption of
the fruit of this process in so many quarters of the contemporary Islamic
world, not to speak of some of the solutions being offered to the problem of
the Islamization of knowledge by followers of both the modernist and the
“fundamentalist” camps.”
Ideology
The case of 'ideology' is another example of
some most basic aspects of modernism which is often accepted by
'fundamentalist' Islamic movements.
“The truth of the matter is in fact that
traditional Islam refuses ever to accept Islam as an ideology and it is only
when the traditional order succumbs to the modern world that the understanding
of religion as ideology comes to the fore, with momentous consequences for
religion itself, not to speak of the society that is ruled in the name of
religious ideology rather than according to the dicta of the Shari`ah, as
traditionally understood.”
“To fail to distinguish between these two
modes is to fail to grasp the most manifest distinction between traditional
Islam, on the one hand, and “fundamentalist“ and modernist Islam, on the other.
In fact, it marks the failure to comprehend the nature of the forces at play in
the Islamic world today.”
Summary
“A great deal more could be said concerning
traditional Islam in contrast to both the modernist and “fundamentalist“
interpretations, although among the latter there are some groups that are
closer to the traditional camp, while others are diametrically opposed to it
and represent simply the countertraditional.”
“In conclusion, it is sufficient to add that
the traditional school opposes the gaining of worldly power and any surrender
to worldliness in the name of Islam, never forgetting the Quranic injunction,
“The other world is better for you than this world“ [ وَلَلآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنَ الأولَى. And verily the Hereafter will be better
for thee than the present. 93-4] While accepting the fact that Islam does not
separate the religious from the 'secular' domain, traditional Islam refuses to
sacrifice the means for the end and does not accept as legitimate the use of
any and every possible political machination appropriated from completely
anti-Islamic sources in order to gain power in the name of Islam.”
“Moreover, traditional Islam does not condone
intoxication caused by hatred and anger any more than it does one caused by
alcohol; nor does it see such a self-righteous and intoxicating hatred as a legitimate
substitute for the need to solve the intellectual, moral, social, economic, and
political problems that the Islamic world faces today.”
“Despite both modernism and this latter-day
“fundamentalism,“ traditional Islam still survives ...in the present-day lives
of those scholars and saintly men and women who continue to follow the path of
the Prophet MHMD, in the lives of those craftsmen and artists who continue to
recreate those visual and audible forms that are vehicles for the grace of the
Quranic revelation, and in the everyday lives of that vast majority of pious
Muslims whose hearts, minds, and bodies still reverberate in response to the
traditional teachings of Islam.” ...
“There has been a certain revival of
traditional Islam in the spiritual, intellectual, and artistic domains during
the past few decades, a revival that has gone largely unnoticed in the West.
... Traditional Islam will in fact endure to the end of history, for it is none
other than that tree whose roots are sunk in the Quranic revelation.” ...
And “no matter how great the confusion, truth
protects itself, because it is none other than reality.”…
fn1 Islam
In The Modern World - Prologue, S. H. Nasr; from IMW p.1-13
fn2 list of traditional writers among others:
- S. H. Nasr and Hamza Yusuf Hanson in
America,
- A. K. Brohi and Suheyl Umar in Pakistan,
- Abd al-Halim Mahmud in Egypt,
- Naquib al-Attas in Malaysia,
- Martin Lings, Hassan Gai Eaton,
- Abdul Hakim Murad (T. J. Winter) in England
as quoted in ”The Decline of Knowledge and the
Rise of Ideology in the Modern Islamic World” by Joseph E.B. Lumbard [back to
text]
Also recommended reading:
The Vision of Islam; Chittick, Murata [-AHM]
fn3 perennial: lasting or existing for a long
or apparently infinite time, enduring or continually recurring.
fn4 Tradition means truths or principles of a
divine origin revealed or unveiled to mankind. KS 68
fn5 see: An introduction to Shaykh Abd Al
Wahid Yahya - René Guénon trg.html
fn6 Differences have existed, but cannot serve
as a pretext for the rejection of the traditional Islamic worldview. IMW406 fn6
fn7 On the the ”inner and outer” dimensions of
Islam, see for example: Sharî`ah, Tarîqah And Haqîqah; S.H. Nasr
fn8 On this question see Titus Burckhadt, The
Art of Islam: Language and Meaning, trans. J. Peter Hobson (Bloomington, IN:
World Wisdom, 2009); and S. H. Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1986).
fn9 It is remarkable how close the views of
modernists and “fundamentalists“ are concerning the rapid mechanization of
means of production and the computerization of every sector of the economy to
the greatest extent possible without any concern for their religious and human
implications.
fn10 An example, sc IMW 407 fn10
fn11 Re. ”Whereas much of earlier
fundamentalism was still orthodox”
fn12 This is seen especially in Islamic penal
codes, which traditionally have taken into account such factors, so that they
have not been applied blindly and without consideration of all the moral
factors involved.
fn13 ks130ff, also S. Muhammad Naquib
al-Attas, Islam and Secularism (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of
Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1978).
fn14 No knowledge can be Islamically
worthwhile unless it is related to a higher plane and ultimately to God, who,
being al-Haqq, or the Truth, is the source of all veritable knowledge.
fn15 The norms of Islamic art are inwardly
related to the Islamic revelation and the spirituality that emanates from it.
“In any case, what Westerners call
civilization, the others would call barbarity, because it is precisely lacking
in the essential, that is to say a principle of a higher order.”
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