[list_indonesia] [ppiindia] Is there a place for intolerance in Islam?
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 21:37:23 +0100
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Is there a place for intolerance in Islam?
Sukidi Mulyadi, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
In his book, The Place of Tolerance in Islam, (2002:22-33), Khaled Abou El
Fadl, a distinguished Islamic scholar at the University of California, Los
Angeles, makes a clear statement about the close interaction between the Koran
as the text and the Muslim as the reader and interpreter in the construction of
intolerance in Islam. "If the reader is intolerant, hateful, or oppressive," he
argues, "so will be the interpretation of the text."
In particular, the intolerant interpretation of Islam is then attributed to the
Muslim puritans and extremists who read and interpret the Koran strictly,
literally, and ahistorically. In support of his thesis, Khaled points to a
number of these puritans and extremists in the course of Islamic history.
First, intolerance in Islam, as Khaled postulates, may be traced back to the
formation of the Kharijites (Arabic, pl. Khawbrij; s. Khawbrijn) in the first
century of Islam. The Kharijites were commonly considered "seceders," "rebels,"
or "revolutionary activists,", because they seceded and fought against the
leadership of the fourth caliph, Ali b. Abi-Talib (r. 656-61), cousin and
son-in-law of Muhammad.
According to Khaled, the Kharijites were responsible for the assassination of
Ali b. Abi-Talib by one of their members, Ibn-Muljam, in 661, and the deaths of
both Muslims and non-Muslims at that time. He regards such historical events as
examples of intolerance and fanaticism in the first century of Islam. Before
the rise of the Kharijites, however, Khaled disregards several earlier examples
that could also be taken to demonstrate intolerance in the course of Islamic
history. One of these incidences involved the assassination of the third
caliph, Uthman b. Affan (r. 644-56), at Madina by the mutineers -- a modern
term for religious extremists -- who broke into Uthman's house and killed him
in the year 656.
Second, intolerance in the modern period is often associated with the rise of
fanatics and extremist groups such as the jihad organizations -- al-Qaeda and
the Taliban. Khaled argues that their theological foundations draw upon the
so-called "intolerant puritanism of the Wahhabi creed." The Wahhabi creed is a
puritan form of Islamic teaching and propagation that is based mainly upon a
strictly literal interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith. The founder of its
movement, Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1791), was a typical puritan Muslim.
However, it seems to me that Khaled fails to trace the line connecting the
teachings of Abd al-Wahhab back to the tradition of Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328).
I believe it is essential to describe him briefly in order to get a proper
understanding about the origins of the sort of intolerant interpretations of
Islam that can be traced back to Ibn Taymiyyah. Born in Harran in Mesopotamia
and trained in the Hambali tradition, Taymiyyah attempted to reinforce the
doctrines of sharia using a strictly literal method, and declared that the
Mongols and their descendants, regardless of their profession of faith in
Islam, were infidels and apostates, because they paid more attention to the
propagation of the Yasa than Islamic sharia.
His literalist and intolerant view of Islam led him to regard the development
of Islamic practices after the death of the Prophet Muhammad and the four
rightly guided caliphs as "unauthentic Islam," including popular Sufism,
Shi'ism, and the veneration of saints' tombs. As a consequence, Taymiyyah began
to oppose all forms of popular Sufism, cultic forms of worship, and the
veneration of saints' tombs, in favor of purifying Islamic belief and practices
from such religious deviations.
Having been influenced by Taymiyyah's exclusivist and intolerant
interpretations of Islamic sharia, Abd al-Wahhab also reinforced the Islamic
sharia with a strictly literal approach, and began to purify Islamic doctrines
and practices from corrupting customary Islam. Accordingly, forms of customary
Islam were considered "unauthentic Islam" as they were characterized by a
combination of Islamic values and doctrines adapted to shared characteristics
of identity, local tradition and ancestral heritage.
Similar to Ibn Taymiyyah, Abd al-Wahhab, as Marshall G.S. Hodgson (1974:161)
argues, "was not the first to denounce most other Muslims as infidels to be
killed, but the Wahhabi state built up by the Sa'ud family proved effectively
powerful ... to destroy all the sacred tombs, including the tomb of Muhammad,
to massacre the Muslims of the holy cities, and to impose their own standards
on future pilgrims." As such, Saudi Arabia's state version of "Wahhabi Islam"
is founded on a strictly literal interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith,
and an intolerant view of both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Given such brief historical accounts of the place of intolerance in the course
of Islamic history, one may ask: What does Abou El Fadl mean by "the place of
tolerance in Islam?" He attempts to ground the origins of tolerance in the
Koran (Q.S., 2:109; 5:13; 15:85; 24:22; 43:89; 64:14). If Khaled regards
tasamuh as the modern Arabic term for tolerance, it must be admitted that such
Koranic verses do not specifically or literally mention the term tasamuh.
I would argue that the Koran itself lacks a specific term to express the
concept of tolerance. The term tasamuh, however, is found in the Hadith, as the
prophet Muhammad said, "the religion most beloved to Allah is the kindly
hanifiyya (ahabbu al-din ila Allah al-hanifiyya al-samha)." The linguistic
affinity of samha with tasamuh or samaha in the Hadith is highly regarded as
the modern reference for discourse on tolerance in Islam.
Though the Koran does not provide a specific term for tolerance, the core idea
of tolerance and pluralism is firmly grounded in the Koran. The Koran espouses
tolerant and pluralist views. As the last installment of a series of scriptures
in the Semitic religions, the Koran affirms and confirms the pluralism of the
scriptures, prophets and religions that preceded the Koranic revelation.
The Koran commands every Muslim "to believe in God and in what has been
revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the
Tribes, and in the books given to Moses, Jesus and the prophets from their
Lord". Believing that the existence of diversity in various forms is in
accordance with the divine will and His intended creation, Khaled argues that
the underlying notion in the creation of diversity is to know each other and to
promote tolerance, harmony and cooperation among people of different faiths.
As such, the Koran supports a number of different religious beliefs, laws and
expressions in a positive way. The Koran states, "To each of you God has
prescribed a Law and a Way. If God would have willed, He would have made you a
single people. But God's purpose is to test you in what he has given each of
you, so strive in the pursuit of virtue, and know that you will all return to
God (in the Hereafter), and he will resolve all the matters in which you
disagree".
This pluralist Koranic worldview has encouraged Khaled to conclude that
tolerance and pluralism have their own origins in the Koran. However, I feel
compelled to sign off with the question: Are there any Islamic countries today
that have preserved a model for applied civic and religious tolerance among
Muslims and non-Muslims alike?
The writer is a graduate student of theological studies at the Harvard Divinity
School, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. He can be reached at
sukidioslo@xxxxxxxxx).
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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