Rescuing Islam from Islamism: Responding to the Betrayal of Islam by Militant Jurists (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798241309792)

Muslims read revelation with minimal comprehension. They are taught that the use of reason to understand revelation is kufr. They are asked to refrain from the use of reason, the faculty of comprehension. The reticence to use reason to understand revelation undermines a person's power to understand and follow revelation. A person that does not understand the Book is not in a position to "follow" it. Refraining from using reason takes a person out of the ranks of the mukallafun, responsible persons in full possession of their reason. It renders a person mentally deficient. Refraining from using reason to understand revelation is preventing the umma from understanding and following the Book of Allah. For a person is not in a position to follow what he or she does not understand. Is it possible to understand anything without the utilization of reason? Rather than follow the Book of Allah, as the prophet did, the umma adheres to the traditions of the forefathers. The turn from revelation to tradition precipitated the fall of the umma. Refraining from using reason is "intellectual suicide." The repression of reason inaugurated a tradition of "intellectual retardation." Abandoning reasoning also retarded the umma's progress in the empirical sciences, rendering the umma vulnerable to assaults by foreign empires with better technology. The Mamluks were destroyed by Napoleon's cannons in the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798. Bravery did not avail the Mamluks. The repression of reason also messed up the umma's eschatology. The rejection of causation makes a mockery of the Day of Accountability and rewards and punishments. The Islamists exchanged the Book of Allah for books of traditions. But Allah says the He never changes the condition of people until they first change what is in themselves (Quran 13:11). When the umma embraced the Book of Allah, it became prosperous. When it exchanged the Book of Allah for books of traditions the umma plunged into backwardness and confusion. It was rendered incapacitated. "Intellectual suicide" is reflected in the shutdown of reasoning, triggered "political suicide." This transpired when rulers embarked on expansionary wars of aggression, prohibited in revelation. The wars triggered retaliation. The umma was defeated by Charles Martel in 732, by Genghis Khan in 1258, and at Vienna in 1529 and 1683. The bias against reason is rooted in the past, in the struggles between the ahl al-hadith and the ahl al-ra'y regarding the role of reason and tradition in understanding revelation. The repression of reason enabled unscrupulous persons to distort the teaching of Islam to endorse the political aspirations of hawkish rulers. The repression of reason enabled politicized jurists to refashion the teaching of Islam, the teaching of reconciliation, as Islamism or a teaching of war. The refashioning transpired the politicization of the epistemology of revelation. This required the weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence. The weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence was expedited by recourse to enabling presupposition. The presupposition encompass the treatment of tradition as revelation and recourse to the teaching of abrogation. Regrettably, these presuppositions represent a defiance of the teaching of revelation. The presuppositions enabling the reinterpretation of Islam as Islamism encompass the rejection of the characterizations of revelation as "clear," "fully detailed," and "contradictory." This requires a return to revelation through the rehabilitation and re-engagement of reason. It also requires the desacralization of tradition and dispensing with the teaching of abrogation. Recitation of the Book of Allah without comprehension is a result of a bias against reason in Muslim tradition. Reason is perceived as an "enemy" of faith. But this is a misconception. Far from being an adversary of revelation, reason is required to understand and follow revelation.

Author: Leslie Terebessy
ISBN-13: 9798241309792
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 12/26/2025
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.76lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.54d