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ISLAMIC METHODOLOGY IN HISTORY

ISLAMIC METHODOLOGY IN HISTORY

Author:
Publisher: ISLAMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE
ISBN: 969 - 408 - 001 – 0
English

NOTES

1. See Chapter 2, pp. 27-84.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibn al-Muqaffa.R. fl'1-Sahabah in Rasa'il al-Bulagha'. Cairo. 1951. pp. 120-21.

4.For example, in his al-Siyasah al-Skar'ivvah. Cairo, 1951, p. 173, where the statement 'the political authority (sultan) is the shadow of God on earth' is even given as a hadith which becomes current in later centuies. Ibn Taymiyah follows this up with the quotation. "Sixty years of an unjust ruler are better than one night without any political authority". 5. Muqaddimah: see Section II (ed. M. Quatrernere, vol. I, p.270)where Ibn KhaldBn descibees how city-life decays under uncouth and specially bedouin rulers.

6. Al-Razi, Kitab al-Arba'in f Usul al-Din. Hyderabad, 1353 A. H,, p. 23 ff. A little earlier on the same page an interesting argument of the Mu'tazill Abu '1-Husayn al-Basri for the opposite thesis of freedom, based on direct selfconsciousness is given.

7. R. fi '1-amrwa'1 -irldah in Majmu'at al-Rasa'il al-Kubra, Cairo, 1323 A.H., I: 334. 1. 13, p. 335, 1. 6.

8. Gibb, H. A. R,, Mohammedanism, Mentor Publications, p. 80 (bottom) and p. 81,1. 5. The judgment in quotation marks there comes from Snouck Hurgronje.

9.These categories are "Unity-and-Plurality", (Wahdah wa-Katharah)", "Sobriety-and-Intoxication (Sahw wa-Sukr)", "Presence-and-Absence (Hudur wa-Ghaybah)", etc. See a discussion of these in the Introduction to my forthcoming book. The Selected Letters of Shaykit Ahmad Sirhindi,

10. The forthcoming volume enitled Islam (in the Weidenfeld and Nicolson Series, History of Religion), Chapter VII.

11. A famous ghazaloi 'Iraqi ends with this verse:

12. See his'-JRiuS'i/ al-Kubr5, vol. II.p 97.

13. See, e.g. his Hujjat Allah al-Baligkak, vol. I, the chapter entitled "Inshjqaq al-Takllf min al-Taqdlr".i.e."How Obligaion flows from Determinism". This, however, must be brought into relation with his other writings based on monistic principles.

14. See my chapter on "Ibn Sina" in the History of Muslim Philosophy, edited by M- M. Sharif, published by Otto Hatrassowitz, Weisbaden, West Germany, 1964; and also my contribution Philosophy and Orthodoxy to the Harry Wolfson Festschrift published by the Jewish Academy of Ameica. New York?1962 (?).

15. Kitab al-Najat, Cairo. 1938, pp. 213-14.

16. See his al-Madlnah al-FSdiiak.ed . A. Nadir. Beirut, 1959, p.118.As I have shown in my Prophecy in Islam, London, 1958, this belief which is certainly not Islamic, comes from the Hellenic sources, although al-Faribl tries to quote the Qur'Bn in his support.

17. Ibn Taymiyah, Kitsb al-NubuwwSt. Cairo, 1346 A. H.. p. 168.11.4-23.

18. "Guidance to Wisdom" (Hidayat al-Hikmak) is a well- known work of Adjlr al-DIn Mufaddal b/'Umaral-Abbarl (d. 663/1264). The two names in inverted commas al-Shifa' and at-Ishar3t - are the famous woiks of Ibn Sins.

19. The linguisic point here is that the Arabic "Shark al-Sadr" Can also mean "an opening of the breast," i.e..Illumination of the mind besides meaning the "Commentary of Sadra" (Mulll Sadri on Ibn Sina).

20. "The Brilliant Sun" (al-Shams aUBStighak) by Mulla Mahmnd of JawnpOr (see Encyclopaedia of Islam, newed. s.v. al-FARUKl by A. S. Bazmee Ansari).

21. Sullam - a staircase ot a flight of steps - is the name of a Famous text by Muhibb Allah of Bihar (see Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed.. s. v. al-BIHAW by A. S. Bazmee Ansari).

22. That hadith meant the traditional materials whereas Sunnah signified the deduction of practical norms from these materials by the exercise of understanding, can be illustrated by the following examples: " 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Mahdl (d- 198 A.H.) is reported to have said that Sufyan al-Xbawri was an authority (imam) on hadith but not on Sunnah and that the opposite was true of al-Awza"!; Malik combined in himself both types of expert and masterly qualities". See al-Zurqam, apud I. Goldziher, Muhamma danische Studien. 1961. vol. II.p. 12. Similarly. Abu DawHd (apud Goldziher,ibid., p. 11.Footnote 6), after narrating a hadith about a person who kills an animal during the state of ihram. Quotes Ahmad b.Hanbal as saying:'There are five sunnahs (i.e., points of law) that follow from this hadith.'

23. This must have occurred after the introduction of medical Knowledge, for the term 'abdSn' used here means human or living bodies as opposed to the term 'ajsam'. It also underlines the utilitarian intent of the statement in singling out medicine from among all the sciences.

24. K. al-MuwafaqZt, Cairo.1302 A. H., vol. I, p. 16, The Fifth Proposition, especially p.19.

25. Ibid., p. 11,The Third Proposition.

26. Islamic Studies, Journal of the Central Institute of Islamic Research. Karachi, i/4, p. 21.1.38 ff.

27. MaktUbit, vol.I, No.266. We are told there: "Among their (the philosophers') firm and sure sciences is mathematics which is utterly meaningless and absolutely useless".

26. Ibn Taymiyah. MajmUat al-Rasa'il al-Kubr3, vol. L Cairo, 1)23 AH : the short treatise entitled fi'l-'amr wa'l-iradah, pp. 361-2.

29. See al-Iji's Mawaqif with al-Jurjani's commentary, vol. L Introduction, where the point of the self-sufficiency of 'Ilm'al- Kalam U fervently argued; the point at issue is whether a general question like the existence of God should be entrusted to a pior science like Metaphysics. The latter view is rejected as this would imply that even the "crown of the Shari'ah sciences" is not self-sufficient.

30. See the chapter on Education in my forthcoming book Islam, being published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.

31. Al-Shafi'i, al-Risalah, ed. Ahmad Muhammad Shakir. Cairo, 1309 A. H.. p. 372 ff.. Specially pp.391-3;See also p.373.

Where al-Shafi'i states categorically: "In hadith I accept the report of a single person and (even) of a single womanWhereas I accept neither of these as evidence in a court. Again, in hadith I accept, 'so-and-so told me', provided he is not a forger, but as court evidence, I shall accept nothing but I heard', I saw or 'He made me a witness of." On the same page, however, al-Shafi states that sometimes he would refuse to accept Hadiths from people whose evidence would be accepted in court, because hadith transmission can produce great changes in hadith-content and it is important to use the right words to convey the meaning. See also al-Shafi'i's rather curious argument in Ikhtilaf al-Hadith (published on the margin of K. al-Umm,VII : 12 if.).that if people accepted single person's reports about the Prophet during his lifetime, such acceptance became all the more necessary after the Prophet's death. Al-Shafi's point apparently is that a person could, without disadvantage, reject a report about the Prophet during the Latter’s lifetime since he could go back to the original source but that after the Prophet's death the original source has been removed. But it is obvious that this argument can be turned the other way round with a far greater force since after his death the Prophet can no longer deny false reports about him.