According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, theology is defined as “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience: especially the study of God and God’s relation to the world.” The term originally comes from the Greek theos, i.e., God, and logos, i.e., reason. As a subject, it deals with matters concerning the nature of God, the essence of what it is to be a human being, the nature of the world, the nature of existence itself, eschatology, and the ultimate nature of reality. While its beginnings are traced back to the Greeks, its more systemized form was developed in Christianity. However, as can be appreciated from its subject matter, it is a field of study that applies to all the major religions in one form or another.
Translated literally into Arabic, the term theology is ‘ilm al-Lāhūt (the study of God), which is not technically what Muslim scholars do when they engage in the subjects dealt with under the rubric of theology. In a Hadith related by at-Tabarānī on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar RA the Beloved ﷺ is reported to have said, “Contemplate on the signs of God, and do not contemplate on the essence of God.” Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī (d. 386 AH/996 AD) states in his text ar-Risāla that when it comes to God, “None who make descriptions can reach the essence of His Attribute, and no contemplators can encompass His affair; the contemplators learn through His signs, but they do not contemplate on the howness of His Being.”
Rather than ‘ilm al-Lāhūt, the Arabic term for this area in Islamic disciplines is ‘ilm al-Kalām, which literally translates into the “Study of Speech”. What Muslim scholars of Kalam engage in is the establishment of primary beliefs leading to Islam based on pure reason, then the proper articulation of Islamic beliefs based on Revelation. The intellect’s role is limited to the use of pure reason to arrive at the rational belief in the necessary existence of God, and the belief in His Messengers (may peace be upon them) until their Seal in the person of the Beloved ﷺ, based on the necessary attributes they must demonstrate. Once Revelation is accepted, the limits of the intellect are lifted through its use of Revelation as the lens by which it judges what is acceptable and what is not. Without Revelation, the intellect becomes a powerful tool of human self-destruction, engages in circular reasoning, and produces an infinite number of conundrums and irresolvable paradoxes. Through Revelation, the intellect is connected with the One having no beginning and no end, granted the power of insight, and transcends over creation in order for humans to perform the role of vicegerency for which they were created:
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
When your Lord told the angels, ‘I am putting a vicegerent on earth,’ they said, ‘How can You put someone there who will cause damage and bloodshed when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?’ but He said, ‘I know things you do not.’ [Quran 2:30]
The reason for calling this area of the Islamic sciences Kalām came about from debates between Muslim scholars and nascent groups arising in the early period. When asked about a belief regarding the Attributes of God, the nature of the Quran, eternality of Hell, or the intended meanings of some verses in the Quran that speak about God’s relationship with the world, more specifically humans, before, during, and after the Day of Judgement, scholars would begin their responses by saying, “The Kalām, i.e. speech, to be said about such a matter is such and such” (الكلام في هذه المسألة كذا وكذا). The importance of this lies in the link between thought and belief to speech. The linguist Edward Sapir noted in his 1929 essay The Status of Linguistics as a Science:
Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built on the language habits of the group… We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.
Muslim scholars were and remain sensitive to this issue, which belies the furious debates that have ensued since the early beginnings of Kalam and continuing today, albeit under different banners and groups as time progressed. This sensitivity arose out of a verse in the Quran in which God says:
قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَطَنَ وَالْإِثْمَ وَالْبَغْيَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ وَأَن تُشْرِكُوا بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ سُلْطَانًا وَأَن تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
Say, ‘My Lord only forbids disgraceful deeds- whether they be open or hidden- and sin and unjustified aggression, and that you, without His sanction, associate things with Him, and that you say things about Him without knowledge.’ [Quran 7:33]
In addition, Imam al-Bukhārī transmits a Hadith on the authority of Abū Hurayra RA who relates that the Beloved ﷺ said:
إن العبد ليتكلم بالكلمة من رضوان الله لا يلقي لها بالا يرفعه الله بها درجات وإن العبد ليتكلم بالكلمة من سخط الله لا يلقي لها بالا يهوي بها في جهنم
Certainly, a person will speak a word that will earn God’s pleasure without paying attention to it, and God will elevate him or her by degrees; and certainly, a person will speak a word that will earn him or her God’s displeasure without paying attention to it, and they will fall because of it into the Fire.
Far from being insignificant, the words by which one chooses to express themselves may either reflect their already established thoughts and beliefs or if they have not yet, continued use of certain words will eventually lead to establishing thoughts and beliefs stemming from their use of such language. It is, for this reason, that the Beloved ﷺ promised Paradise for the one who is able to control their tongue, for doing so means they are controlling their thoughts and in turn shaping their beliefs. It is therefore not the case that one can claim they have no control over their convictions. Rather, it is a matter of whether one exercises their faculty of pure reason to arrive at Revelation, and then using Revelation as a guide to control his or her beliefs. The challenge in doing so lies in that once one receives the Message they must confront their ego, whims, as well as financial and social anxieties and pressures which act as layers that Iblees uses to veil the heart, and choose to instead submit to the Will of their Lord:
الشَّيْطَانُ يَعِدُكُمُ الْفَقْرَ وَيَأْمُرُكُم بِالْفَحْشَاءِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُم مَّغْفِرَةً مِّنْهُ وَفَضْلًا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Satan threatens you with the prospect of poverty and commands you to do foul deeds; God promises you His forgiveness and His abundance: God is limitless and all knowing, [Quran 2:268]
While Kalam describes the area of Islamic learning known as discursive theology, it is nevertheless the servant of Islamic creed, known in Arabic as ‘Aqeedah. This Arabic term is derived from the root letters ‘a, qa, da (ع ق د), which means to tie a knot. It indicates a binding of the believer to their Lord, which is implied in the English word religion, etymologically derived from the Latin, meaning a “state of life bound by monastic vows,” and “conduct indicating a belief in a divine power.”
Given the meaning of ‘Aqeedah, one would rightly expect a believer in Islam to conduct their affairs in public and in private based on this belief. God states that He has clarified all matters in the Quran and He will use that as evidence on the Day of Judgement against those who claim otherwise:
وَيَوْمَ نَبْعَثُ فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْهِم مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ ۖ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ شَهِيدًا عَلَىٰ هَٰؤُلَاءِ ۚ وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ تِبْيَانًا لِّكُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ
The day will come when We raise up in each community a witness against them, and We shall bring you [Prophet] as a witness against these people, for We have sent the Scripture down to you explaining everything, and as guidance and mercy and good news to those who devote themselves to God. [Quran 16:89]
Muslim scholars have mentioned that what is referred to in this verse does not refer to the explicit details of everything. Rather, whatever is not mentioned in detail, the guiding principles upon which a believer must base his or her decision-making are clearly mentioned in the Quran. Hence, the idea of pragmatic decision-making that elevates calculated political, social, or financial interests above Divine Will is not only foreign to Islam, but it is also considered an act of disbelief according to the Quran:
أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ ۚ فَمَا جَزَاءُ مَن يَفْعَلُ ذَٰلِكَ مِنكُمْ إِلَّا خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
Do you believe in some parts of the Scripture and not in others? The punishment for those of you who do this will be nothing but disgrace in this life, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be condemned to the harshest torment: God is not unaware of what you do. [Quran 2:85]
وَأَنِ احْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَن يَفْتِنُوكَ عَن بَعْضِ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ ۖ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَن يُصِيبَهُم بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ ۗ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ ۚ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حُكْمًا لِّقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ
So judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, and take good care that they do not tempt you away from any of what God has sent down to you. If they turn away, remember that God intends to punish them for some of the sins they have committed: a great many people are lawbreakers. Do they want judgement according to the time of pagan ignorance? Is there any better judge than God for those of firm faith? [Quran 5:49-50]
The modern challenge in Islamic education lies in transmitting the tradition in a way that makes it practical and relatable to the average Muslim. For many, Islam has become more of a cultural identity and an imagined glorious past than a living tradition that a Muslim can draw instructive lessons to conduct his or her life in the present. A not so insignificant number of Muslims in the West speak about the Muslim community as a minority group on equal footing with other minority groups in society. This is an understanding that does not align with how God describes the believers regardless of what proportion of the population they make up:
وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِّتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا
We have made you [believers] into a just community, so that you may bear witness [to the truth] before others and so that the Messenger may bear witness [to it] before you. [Quran 2:143]
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ آمَنَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَّهُم ۚ مِّنْهُمُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
[Believers], you are the best community singled out for people: you order what is right, forbid what is wrong, and believe in God. If the People of the Book had also believed, it would have been better for them. For although some of them do believe, most of them are lawbreakers. [Quran 3:110]
Activism and social justice today is largely informed and guided by the works of influential authors and activists taught in the disciplines of political theory, sociology, and anthropology. The philosophical underpinnings of these disciplines are rooted in a worldview that either does not accept the existence of God or if it does, it relegates Him in the corner of a closet located in the attic away from consideration. Combined with the fear of persecution, this condition has led to a new generation of Muslims that profess support for Islamically prohibited practices to a degree that surpasses the most left-wing fringes in the American context as Dawud Walid notes in Towards Sacred Activism:
The effect of Islamophobia upon the Muslim psyche, coupled with the seemingly sympathetic LGBTQ community as it relates to anti-Muslims bigotry, has shifted how a significant segment of the American Muslims view homosexuality. According to a 2017 Pew study, there was a 25% increase of American Muslims who believe that society should accept homosexuality, shifting from 27% in 2007 to 52% in 2017. In fact, the poll suggests that American Muslims have become more accepting of the notion of LGBTQ acceptance in society than White Evangelicals. In fact, Muslim millennials are 20% more accepting of homosexuality in the society than millennials who are not Muslims, making Muslim millennials actually the most far left group on this issue in America. What is unclear from the Pew Study is the percentage of those who view homosexual intercourse and cross-dressing as not violating Islamic theology verses [sic] those who believe that homosexuality should be merely protected as a civil right.
Politics is an extension of ethics, and ethics is a branch of philosophy. However, all this depends on one’s belief about the nature of reality and if a belief in God and His Revelation should play a role in one’s life and moral reasoning. Whether Muslim millennials who support homosexuality view homosexual intercourse as violating Islamic theology or not at this point in time is irrelevant. Cognitive dissonance can only be tolerated for so long. What one proclaims and supports with their tongue and acts out with their limbs by marching in protests based on political expediency today will eventually turn into a belief with their heart tomorrow.
To be fair, the attraction that lays behind various “isms” and ideologies manifesting themselves in Muslim discourse today can be attributed to at least two things: the ossification of the Islamic tradition, and the utility of the explanatory power of materialist critiques against existent structures and paradigms in the world. In terms of the tradition, it is an understatement to describe it as puzzling to have students memorize the Quran in its variant recitations, study the major commentaries on it, go through the main collections of Hadith and Hadith criticism, master the Arabic language and all the ancillary tools related to interpretative methodology, not to mention reaching advanced levels in their study of Islamic law, its foundations and objectives, but when asked a question about a current affair they cannot draw on any of this because they have been trained to not step an inch outside of what has been written in a text 700 years ago.
No matter how great a scholar is, that they are a human being impacted and affected by their sociopolitical context and have a particular psychological disposition that can explain some of their preferences for certain rulings over opposing but equally valid ones, is a fact that is hardly appreciated. Even if no one claims past scholars are infallible, in practice, they are treated as such. We sadistically revel in self-flagellation as we continue to declare that nothing good can come from us and overly romanticize an imagined utopic past we reminisce about while we throw our hands up in futility declaring how terrible we are and how these are the End Times. We cite the Hadith of the Beloved ﷺ where he declares that the best of generations is his generation, then the one following it, then the third one after it, but forget the Hadith related in the collection of at-Tabarānī and others in which the Beloved ﷺ is reported to have said:
مثل أمتي مثل المطر لا يدرى الخير في أوله أو آخره
The example of my Ummah is like that of the rain, the good in it is not known whether it is in the beginning of it or the end
It is hardly surprising that after generations of self-negation by Muslim scholars and teachers that Muslims are going to turn to philosophers who are self-affirming. A people who are oppressed and dispossessed will listen to leaders who beat them while they are down only for so long before they decide to look for new leaders who seem to offer them solutions. Made to believe that the tradition does not contain the tools to solve their problems because of an ossified class, a new generation of Muslims decided to turn elsewhere. They remain committed to the religion, but that commitment is more of the last vestiges of their Fitra, their natural disposition to the Truth of Islam, holding on for dear life to this religion against all odds.
The academic materialist critiques offered by Western and Western-educated philosophers against capitalism, colonialism, and existing power structures and metanarratives provide a language by which the oppressed are able to understand how things got to the way they are today to benefit one group and disadvantage everyone else. They provide powerful tools to deconstruct the existing status quo with the laudable goal of creating a more just and equitable society for everyone. Indeed, this is a goal that perfectly aligns with Islamic teachings, and at a more base level, it speaks to the Fitra. They highlight how power can be abused and explain to what extent that abuse has had an impact on marginalized peoples. However, given that materialist critiques are put forth through a naturalistic worldview devoid from God and Revelation, they rely on unguided intellectual exercises and emotional judgement calls to determine what defines justice and equity. They do not recognize an intent for creation by its Creator. They reject a Divinely imparted order and problematize the normal to grant the abnormal equal recognition.
The attraction of materialist critiques lies in their utility to understand current conditions and to propose short-term practical solutions. However, now separated from the Islamic tradition, Muslims adopting materialist critiques as paradigms to morally reason through the world set themselves on a path that will sooner or later have them for all practical intents and purposes assume a materialist worldview without realizing it. The rituals, the Islamic greetings, the beards, and hijabs will all be parts of a public performance because without an intellectual conviction in Islam and a willful submission to God’s Will in accordance with His commands, being Muslim becomes nothing more than a racial identity with peculiar markers to identify it. Not only will the obligation to call people to Islam become meaningless if it is brought up at all, but Muslims immersed in this paradigm of materialist critique will turn their pens against Islam itself, dismissing and mocking the tradition, because it now has to be treated as just another social phenomenon with hierarchical structures that must be dismantled. Unequipped with interpretative tools, armed with materialist critiques, and driven by disdain for traditional scholars who whipped them in the past, the hijab is no longer an obligation, inheritance laws are oppressive to women, and the People of Lūt were not destroyed for homosexual behaviour but for raping guests. The problem is not with the modern cultural zeitgeist, it is with Islam.
As the materialist critique takes hold over the Muslim’s psyche, the Quran and Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ become strange sources to hear from. Ever since the industrial revolution, we have been conditioned to treat knowledge as something that can be divided and separated to different fields, where expertise is required to be able to speak on any area of human endeavour. In this is an equivocation that manages to pass undetected by most people. For instance, the idea that one could dismiss a whole area of study as false, despite having elements of truth in it, sounds preposterous at first. However, no Muslim has a problem rejecting Hinduism, for instance, as a false religion, despite most Muslims having never read the Upanishads or the Vedas at least, let alone be experts in it. In fact, there are over 4000 religions in the world, yet no Muslim requires other Muslims to become experts in all of them before declaring them as false.
There are two levels at which a discipline or any doctrine can be evaluated. The first is basic and can be grasped by most people who spend the time to learn about it, which is the philosophical foundations upon which it is built. There is no system of study in academia except that it makes certain assumptions about the nature of existence and the nature of reality as a whole. It takes a position regarding the existence of God, His relationship with the world, and whether Revelation has any role to play. One does not need expertise in a particular academic field to grasp how it is constructed and functions. Expertise in such a field, on the other hand, means having daily engagement with the arguments and regularly contributing to the discourses within it based on what has become normatively accepted among its academic members.
Practically speaking, theology operates at the first level of evaluation. If a discipline is deemed to be false from an Islamic standpoint, that only speaks of it as a paradigm to morally reason and judge the world. However, as a tool, it may still be of use so long as the lens through which one morally reasons and judges remains through the Quran and Sunnah. By way of example, quantum physics is a fascinating and wonderful field. But a Muslim does not have to be a quantum physicist to reject the claim that the universe was created from nothing, irrespective of how many blackboards are filled with formulas to “prove” that by a quantum physicist who happens to also be an avowed evangelical atheist. Pure reason and the intellect working through Revelation can judge that to be a nonsensical statement. Another example is evolutionary theory. A Muslim has to reject the claim that Adam and Eve peace be upon them did not exist as unique individuals because Revelation says otherwise. Evolutionary conjecture founded upon whimsical materialist assumptions cannot be used to supersede certainty in Revelation. One does not have to be a biologist to make this assertion.
It may then seem incoherent to the observer seeing a Muslim making use of materialist critiques, for example, while at the same time rejecting them as a whole. It only seems so to the one who wishes for materialist critiques to be an overarching paradigm, an umbrella if you will, under which everything, including Islam, must fall. But to a Muslim who is concerned about aligning their thought and behaviour with God’s Will, such an act is coherent because it is guided by the Quran and the Sunnah. Imam at-Tirmidhī relates a Hadith that while weak in its chain of transmission is sound in its meaning. The Beloved ﷺ is reported to have said, “Wisdom is the lost property of the believer, where he or she finds it, they have more right to it.” A believer is meant to be searching for truth and value everywhere, but it must all be grounded at the end of the day in the Quran and the Sunnah. A Muslim may use a tool without turning it into a worldview. If in the process of using such a tool some conclusions do not align with the Quran and Sunnah, such conclusions, which are derived from limited knowledge and experience cannot be used to put Islam on trial. The only coherence a Muslim should be seeking while in this world is with the Quran and Sunnah, and everything else is to be judged in light of them.
The Muslim community in the West has a lot of internal work to do. Scholars and teachers have to undergo a major overhaul of how the tradition is taught if there is any desire to keep the next generation of Muslims within the fold of the religion in any meaningful way. The tradition itself has to be brought back to life so it can have an impact on the average Muslim’s life beyond the ritual aspect of it. Only through doing this can we expect Muslims to assume the role of vicegerents on the Earth as God intended for us to be.
May the Quran and the Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ be the first thing that occurs to your mind in any context you find yourself, in response to any question you’re presented with, and in reaction to any event that occurs to you.
May the Quran and the Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ be your path and approach in all matters private or public.
May the Quran and the Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ form your character and inform your beliefs before you navigate through anything else that you come across.
May the Quran and the Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ be your life.
