PIETY OF SOLIDARITY AND ORTHODOXY

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PIETY OF SOLIDARITY AND ORTHODOXY

• THE JAMAI-SUNNI EXPERIENCE

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SUNNI-JAMIISM THE PIETY OF SOLIDARITY

• An ethos more appropriate to a historically more
  successful majority
• A piety of pride and great heritage
• Rivalry of several forms of piety
• Theological - The activism of the Mutazilites
• Hadith-populism the Ahl al-Hadith

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MUTAZILISM THE MUSLIM RATIONALISTS

• Responsibility of free humans before a just God
• Metaphorical interpretation of the Quran
• Belief crucial to salvation
• Faith implies an act of will rather than of
  intellect
• The notion of trusting God replaced by believing
  that God is trustworthy

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THE FIVE PRINCIPLESUSUL AL-KHAMSA

• 1. Tawhid Unity of God The foundation of the
  Quranic interpretation
• 2. Adl Justice of God The basis of
  Rationalist Ethics
• 3. The state of the sinner Manzila bayn
  al-manzilatayn
• 4. The Divine Judgement al-Wad wa al-waid
• 5. Instituting the good and preventing the evil

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THE HADITH FOLK

• Ahl al-Hadith a group for whom hadith the most
  important source of religious authority
• More emotional than intellectual, hence opposed
  to rationalism
• Looking back to Marwanid jamaah solidarity
• Revered Muawiya and even depreciated Ali
• Anti-revolutionary, criticizing the Pious
  Opposition to the Marwanid/Umayyads
• Rejected the duty of commanding the good

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COMMUNITY CONSCIOUS PIETY

• The Quran and the Sunnah sufficient to achieve
  religious life
• Glorification of Text and rejection of reason
• The Quran an uncreated, eternal Word of God
  becomes a sign of Orthodoxy
• The battle for God Transcendence and
  Intellectualism
• Ahmad b. Hanbal, the champion of orthodoxy

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THE RISE OF MYSTICISM

• Less historically oriented
• Founded upon spiritual athleticism the
  development of the self
• Sufi represented Batini-Shiite piety among the
  Sunnis
• Starting point the Quran and its inner meanings
• Their goal To repeat Muhammads experience of
  receiving revelation from God

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MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

• Incommunicable to those insensitive to the inner
  dimensions of divine presence
• As personal discipline inward personal
  experience the focus of devotional attention
• Founded upon innumerable steps on the path the
  Tariqa
• The experience of numinous enchanted
  fascination, inward transformation of
  conciousness a moral process

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UNIVERSAL MORAL PROCESS

• The experience of arriving at a relative personal
  clarity
• Cherished moments of retirement and recollection
  when any loss or failure can be objectively
  evaluated without anxiety or self-pity
• The search for a healthy state of mind, free from
  confusing effects of self-importance or of
  preconceptions
• A more universal perspective of life based on
  self-assessment and self-discipline