Wahhabism and Modern Islamic Ideology

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Wahhabism and Modern Islamic Ideology

• From Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab to Sayyid Qutb

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Wahhabism and Modern Islamic Ideology

• Wahhabism A conservative 18th century reform
  movement of Sunni Islam
• Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab--(17031792). Born in
  Najd, Arabia.
• Was from a line of scholars of the Hanbali school
  of jurisprudence
• The Hanbali school of jurisprudence stressed
  reliance on the Quran as the preeminent source
  of Islamic law (Sharia)
• The next most reliable source was the Hadith, or
  sayings of the Prophet, that reflected the way
  the early community (umma) interpreted the
  message of Muhammad.

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Wahhabism and Islamic Ideology

• Wahhabi stressed the following
• The oneness of God (monotheism)
• All acts of piety and deference toward the
  Prophet and other Muslims, dead or alive, as
  idolatry.
• Jihad (holy war) against such Muslims who
  violated this principle
• No blind adherence to the interpretations of
  Islamic scholars
• Responsibility to learn the way of the Prophet
  (the sunnah), i.e. the Quran and Hadith, fell
  upon the individual Muslim (to be educated in
  Madrassas, or holy schools

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Wahhabism and Islamic Ideology

• Islam had endured through several centuries of
  political leadership that had diluted its pure
  message (The Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties).
• Islam needed purification
• What was needed was a revival of itjihad
  (independent reasoning) within the Muslim, not a
  reliance on accepted teaching (this movement
  became known as Salafism).
• Muslims should avoid shirk
• Major shirk, which relates to the aspects of
  worship, intention, obedience and showing
  fidelity to people.
• Minor shirk, which relates to the act of showing
  off
• Hidden shirk, in which a believer may fall
  inadvertently, modes of dress, associating with
  idolatrous Muslims, adopting western styles, or
  customs

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The Muslim Brotherhood
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The Muslim Brotherhood

• British Colonial rule 1882-1922
• Indirect Control 1923-52 during which Egypt was
  ruled by a monarchy
• Ottoman Caliphate abolished in 1924
• Egyptian politics during this period dominated
  by the struggle between Egyptian nationalists,the
  monarchy and the British
• Egypt used by the British as an operations base
  during World War II
• 1948 Arab-Israeli war (Brotherhood sends
  volunteers)

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Hasan al-Banna
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The Muslim Brotherhood

• Born in Mahmudiyya, north-west of Cairo
• Importance of Sufism (Hasafi tariqa)
• Moved to Cairo in 1922 and studied to become a
  primary school teacher
• Graduated in 1927 and moved to Ismailiyya, on
  the Suez canal
• Founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928
• Back to Cairo in 1932, grassroots organizing
• In 1948 Prime Minister al-Nuqrashi assassinated
• In 1949 Hasan al-Banna assassinated by security
  forces

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The Muslim Brotherhood

• the social organization of the tariqa (to which
  he took an oath of allegiance at 18)
• levels of understanding (khassah vs. ammah)
• importance of helping the poor
• belief as social practice
• opposition to Christian missionary
• activities

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The Muslim Brotherhood

• Islamic decline and renaissance
• Westernization and colonialism, especially as
  seen in education
• Social and political justice
• The function of the ulama
• Islam as a comprehensive system

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The Muslim Brotherhood

• The propagation of Islam as an all-encompassing
  solution to political and social problems The
  Quran is the answer
• The mosque as a center of socialization, the
  institutional heart of an Islamic revolution a
  school, a hospital, a spiritual base
• The importance of organization and moral
  probity rejection of colonialism, imperialism,
  secularism and the West

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The Muslim Brotherhood

• Distinct from the Salafi movement of Afghani,
  Abduh and Rida Banna was from a different social
  class and was no alim
• Primary interest was in social organization, not
  in theoretical speculation
• Brotherhood and ulama in competition for the
  masses
• Superiority of turath to modernity

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The Muslim Brotherhood

• Spirituality in the East
• Islam the solution, defined by the Quran
• the pros and cons of patriotism and nationalism
• Ideologies of racial superiority fraudulent
• The Brotherhood supports debate, difference, and
  gentleness
• Quran and Sunna and a strong determined
  leadership are the answer

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Sayyid Qutb
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Sayyid Qutb

• Continuity of Qutbs thought? Different phases
• Q8.53 Truly God does not change the state of a
  people until they change that which is in
  themselves
• The full implications of submission and
  servitude to God
• We must see ourselves as though we were of the
  Prophets generation

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Sayyid Qutb

• Quote in our capacity to reconstruct and
  relive the abundance of the feelings,
  comprehensions, and experiences accompanying the
  revelation (of the Quran) and the first
  generation of Muslims, who received the Quran in
  the thick of the struggle. Theirs was an
  environment of jihad (striving) jihad against
  the self, temptations, and people . . . The
  ambiance of the emerging Muslim community and its
  nascent social system was a reflection of a
  lively friction between feeling, interests, and
  principles.

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Sayyid Qutb

• Islam was corrupted and distorted by philosophy,
  leisure and the ulama
• only those who take up the position of the
  vanguard (and thus the place of the Prophet and
  his Companions) can interpret the Quran
• The implications of Gods lordship

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Sayyid Qutb

• The Renaissance was the beginning of the end
  man over God, reason over scripture
• The Wests focus on materialism Darwin, Freud,
  Marx, no room for spirituality
• All Western ideologies have exploited humanity
  Feudalism, Capitalism, Marxism, Nazism
• Capitalism destruction of the soul and the
  individual

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Sayyid Qutb

• Tawhid submission to God in all realms, no
  difference between ibadat and muamalat
• Man, as vice-regent of God, measure of all
  things
• The limitations of reason and technology
• Islam is the solution for alienation and
  spiritual malaise
• Qutb an independent thinker, with fully
  articulated theory by 1962, same time Nasser
  brings the Azhar under state control

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Sayyid Qutb

• The Quran a dynamic, revolutionary document
• Mecca and Medina 1) patience and oppression, 2)
  political formation and expansion (importance of
  jihad in its fullest meaning)
• Enemies International Zionism, Crusaderism and
  Communism
• Vanguard the poor, weak (Nasserism?)
• Egypt in a state of jahiliyyah -gt jihad
• Interpretation in the hands of the vanguard, not
  the ulama
• Dynamic fiqh, not paper fiqh, but first an
  Islamic State

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Sayyid Qutb

• What do we make of Sayyid Qutb?
• Hasan al-Hudaybi (d. 1973)s Missionaries not
  Judges, and the shift of the Brotherhood towards
  moderation and gradualism
• Influence on other Islamist groups

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The Iranian Revolution

• The Question of Succession The Rightly Guided
  Caliphs
• Abu Bakr (632-34)
• father of the Prophets favorite wife Aisha
• the ridda wars
• Umar (634-44)
• father of the Prophets wife Hafsah
• vast expansion of Muslim rule, Jerusalem falls
• Uthman (644-56)
• Married to the Prophets daughter Ruqayya
• Murdered in his house while reading the Quran
• Ali (656-61)
• Married to Fatima al-Zahra, the Prophets
  daughter
• The Prophets cousin, first male convert to
  Islam

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Important Battles

• 656 Battle of the Camel
• Talha, Zubayr and Aisha against Ali
• 657 Battle of Siffin
• Ali vs. Muwiya (cousin of Uthman, son of Abu
  Sufyan and Hind) -gt 661 Umayyad caliphate
• Arbitration some of Alis followers desert him
  (Kharijites)
• 661 Ali assassinated by a Kharijite
• Second generation after the Prophet
• 680 Karbala
• Alis son Husayn is killed by Muwiyas son Yazid
• -gt this defeat central to later Shia identity,
  commemorated on 10th of Muharram (Ashura)

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Distinguishing characteristics of post-formative
Shiism

• Muhammad designated Ali his successor -gt ritual
  cursing of first caliphs
• belief in Gods guidance of the Prophets family
  -gt Imams are protected from error
• division into three major groups, Zaydis (5ers),
  Ismailis (7ers), Imamis (12ers)
• different legal and theological canon than
  Sunnis -gt distinct ritual practices
• importance of Ashura -gt example of Husayn
• Shia states Fatimids, Buyids, Safavids

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Ayatollah Khumayni (d. 1989)
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Ayatollah Khumayni

• A sayyid and mullah
• Status advanced to marja in 1963 clash with Shah
  (Khurdad 15 movement move to Iraq
• Forced to leave Najaf for Paris by Saddam in 1978
• Becomes spiritual head of Iran after revolution
• Dies of heart failure in 1989

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The Iranian Revolution

• Shahs Iran in the 70s secular modernism,
  nationalism based on national myth going back to
  pre-Islamic Persia
• Khomeini, one ayatollah among many, exiled in
  1964 for criticizing the Shah
• Social classes opposed to Shah devout middle
  classes (bazaar), working classes
• Student opposition Marxism vs. the socialist
  Shiism of Ali Shariati (d. 1977)
• The political and economic independence of the
  ulama in Iran

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The Iranian Revolution

• Rational explanation of the importance of Gods
  Law
• The necessity of the ruler to exhibit the
  following qualities knowledge of law and justice
• Citation of relevant ayas and traditions that
  justify the central role of the faqih
• Enayats argument that Khumeini downplayed the
  importance of the return of the 12th Imam and
  brought the Shia closer to Sunnis by stripping
  the Imam of supernatural qualities

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The Iranian Revolution

• Khomeinis doctrine of wilayat al-faqih
  (guardianship should include all issues for which
  Prophet of Islam and Shi'a Imam have
  responsibility, including governance of the
  country)
• This view opposed by most other ulama
• Economic downturn in the late 1970s, Khomeini
  drew on Shariatis concept of the disinherited
  (mustadafeen)
• Attack on Khomeini in 1978 demonstrations for a
  year, Shah flees in January 1979
• Liberal and religious rivals sidelined by the
  80s
• Iran-Iraq war 1980-88
• The legacy of Hussein at Karbala a culture of
  martyrdom in the context of war
• A harsh critique of moral authority of the West

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Iranian Exportation of the Revolution

• Lebanon balance between Sunnis, Shia, Maronite
  Christians, Druze political roles distributed
  according to demography
• Civil War begins in 1975, Syrian presence since
  1976, Israel invades in 1982 to throw out PLO
• Imam Musa Sadr (d. 1978 ?) from Iran in 1974,
  founds Amal (Hope) thought is similar to
  Shariati
• 1982 and on in response to Israeli invasion,
  Hizballah is established, Fadlallah recognized by
  them as spiritual advisor