Ibn Arabi -- part 2

This is the second instalment of three part series on Ibn Arabi. To be honest, I don't have that much interest in him as a person or to any of his ideas. Like I said before, Ibn Arabi is a controversial personality and has interesting links to the Zahiri school of thought and Sufism. I haven't written much about Zahiris and almost nothing about Sufism. So why not write about a person whom depending on who you ask, is either thought of very highly as a spiritual master or as a charlatan, who deserve to be condemned.

In part 1 of this topic, the origin and religious background of Ibn Arabi was presented. We also saw a character review done by Ignaz Goldziher, the Hungarian Orientalist.

Ibn Arabi is not an obscure personality. We have a lot of information about him from his writing and from his students. He has written/transcribed between 100-200 books (we don't know the exact number of books, numbers higher than 200 are also sometimes quoted), many which survived until today. Among his famous works are Fusus al-Hikma and Al-Futuhat al-Makkiya.

The following Sufi doctrines/ideas are attributed to ibn Arabi
Unity of Being (Wahdat al-Wujud)
Perfect Man (al-Insan al-Kamil)

Henry Corbin had written extensively on Ibn Arabi. His book, Alone with the Alone, is described as and I quote; bringing a penetrating analysis of Ibn 'Arabi's life and doctrines. I did not read every single pages in this book but just enough to satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps a lot of people have benefited from Ibn Arabi's teaching but I personally find a lot of his ideas imaginary and unbelievable.

After reading some part of Henry Corbin's book, I learned a whole lot about Ibn Arabi spiritual journey; scholarship, his teachers and his insight into Allah swt and Islamic teaching.

Yesterday, we came across Ibn Arabi's dream where he saw Ibn Hazm being flanked by the Prophet of Islam. In Henry Corbin's book, you are again presented with a narration from another dream he had, where he (Ibn Arabi) saw himself being given a valuable treasure by another Prophet (either the staff by Moses or something by Jesus). His interpretation of this dream strike me as someone who is suffering from delusion of grandeur.

to be continued.....

Reference
Henry Corbin (1998). Alone with the Alone. Princeton University Press 978-0691058344

Ibn Arabi -- part 1

Based on my reading, Ibn Arabi is perhaps one of the most influential Sufi Thinkers, if not the most controversial.

He was born in Spain, under the Muslim rule, in the late 11 century. His religious education seems to be conservative; studying the Quran, hadith, grammar and fiqh. In his youth, he traveled seeking spiritual insights from a number of Sufi masters.[1]

The author of the Zahiris, Ignaz Goldziher, had written the following [2]

Among the Muslim theologians who joined the fiqh of the Zahirite school, which during the rule of the Almohades had achieved official recognition, the famous mystic Muhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi is also mentioned. Ibn Arabi was a Zahiri with respect to the ritual part of religion, but a Batini with respect to the article of faith (footnote is pointing to the book al-Maqqari, I, p. 567; Waraqat., p. 569).

Ignaz quoted a passage from ibn Arabi's book (futuhat) about the Mahdi. He added that Ibn Arabi went to great length to emphasize the Mahdi as someone who will frown the qiyas and ra'y, pretty much a follower of his sect, a Zahari.

Now, things are starting to get a little bit interesting. According to Ignaz, in one of Ibn Arabi's dreams, he (Ibn Arabi) saw the Holy Prophet (pbuh) embracing/hugging Ibn Hazam, the founder of Zahirite school. Ignaz concluded by saying

Thus the ardent champion of the Zahirite school (Ibn Hazm), branded and frowned upon by his contemporaries, was clothed with the halo of legend by the greatest mystic of a later era (Ibn Arabi) who himself was a Zahirite. All these incidents sufficiently illuminate the fact that the great theosopher (Ibn Arabi) followed the Zahirite in matters of jurisprudence. In this connection it is not surprising to learn that Ibn Arabi transmits with direct isnad statements which support this doctrine and in which ra'y, even from Abu Hanifah, is condemned.

Please continue reading part 2

Reference
[1] Campo, Juan E. (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam (Encyclopedia of World Religions). USA: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-81-605454-1
[2] Ignaz Goldziher (2008). The Zahiris: Their Doctrine and their History. Brill. USA

Decline of Hanifite, rise of Shafite and the birth of Zahiri

The decline of Hanifite School (Abu Hanifah) in Iraq is likely due to the rising influence from the Shafite school (Shafii) of Islamic thought.
 

Despite being anti-qiyas (Abu Hanifah approach), the Sunni Imam (as-Shafii) did make some concession in application of qiyas (analogy). Imam Shafii accepted Abu Hanifah qiyas only pertaining to orally or written transmitted sources (The Quran, Sunnah and sayings of the Prophet). 

The author also stated that antagonism against Abu Hanifah remained in the Shafite School for a long time despite themselves adopting the qiyas approach in their teaching. Author supported his view by providing statements from Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (a Shafiite) who was an outspoken critic of Abu Hanifah.

Soon enough, many of al-Shafii earlier followers turned back towards ra’y (these were known as ashab al-ra’y) i.e., Abu Thawr al-Kalbi al-Baghdadi, al-Husayn b. Ali al-Karabisi al-Baghdadi and Sirhab b. Yusuf Abu Tahir al-Tibrizi.

Another follower (Shafite), Abu al-Hasim al-Dariki rejected teaching of Abu Hanifah and Imam Shafii and would give out verdict contrary to his predecessors by relying only on hadiths.

But the most extreme Shafite (only hadiths, nothing but hadiths) was Abu Sulayman Dawud b. Ali b. Khalaf, the founder of Zahiri/Dawudi school.

 

From Ra’y (opinion) to Qiyas (analogy)

In the earlier stage of Islam, after the sad demise of the Holy Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his pure family), giving opinions (ra’y) was done on individual basis (without any direction or administration).

Later on, ra’y (opinion) assume the form of Qiyas (analogy). Personal opinions (ra’y) must now apply a logical framework (qiyas).

Two forms of qiyas emerged (I am summarizing and rephrasing)

• Finding a material that is very similar to the problem at hand. Use this as a basis of comparison
• Investigate the motive of the transmitted source and look for the spirit of law. See the cause and effect when new rulings are applied

To what extent did the Sunni Imam Abu Hanifah applied the speculative component in his legal rulings?

• The opponents of the Sunni Imam Abu Hanifa pointed out at his meager collection of hadeeths/traditions that were used by Abu Hanifah to establish his legal school.
• His advocates refuted this by saying that their teacher (Abu Hanifah) only uses qiyas (analogy) when no traditions existed.

Since there is some confusion here, the author said

It would require a deeper insight into Abu Hanifah’s classrooms than is possible in view of the state of the sources, to decide for either one of these parties.

So, what are the facts?

Fact #1: Speculative Jurisprudence in some manner may have existed before Abu Hanifah.

Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman (Abu Hanifah teacher), considered to be very weak in Prophetic traditions, was also claimed to be a great jurist in Kufa.

Fact #2: The Sunni Imam Abu Hanifah was the first person to codify Islamic laws on the basis of Qiyas (analogical jurisprudence).

The action of Abu Hanifah to codify his Islamic laws opened a pandora box.

Insults were casually thrown against him.

Ibn ‘Uyaynah said

“There are two things which I did not expect to spread beyond the bridge in Kufa: Hamzah’s way of reciting the Koran, and Abu Hanifah’s jurisprudence; indeed, both spread all over the world”

Note: please see footnotes in the book for original source.
Continue reading part five

Application of ra'y (opinion)

The following is part 3. Part 1 and part 2.

The author quotes an opinion from al-Shahrastani to rationalize using opinions in deriving the Islamic laws.  I am rephrasing al-Shahrastani; 'written text are limited but the daily life is unlimited and infinite'. The author then ask

How could a codex, derived from entirely different conditions, have given answers to legal problems which arose under these new circumstances?

Abu Dawud (al-Zahiri) would go with the weakest tradition if nothing better existed. The author hypothesized that many traditions might have been invented/fabricated to avoid ra’y (opinion).

Sha'bi was against using opinions to derive Islamic laws and is quoted to have said   

Ra'y (الرأي) is like a carcass ( الميتة); it is used as food in an extreme emergency only. [1]

A few traditions were presented in support of ra'y (opinion). These traditions states that well known figure (i.e., Abu Bakr, Umar and others) have been known to use their opinions (ray) for giving out judgments, when they were unable to find the answers in either the book of Allah or Prophetic traditions. 

Some of these traditions are disregarded (by scholars) because they were not authentic as per isnad (law of traditions) while others were using words and concept that were unfamiliar (non existence) in the time period of the Holy Prophet. These may have been a later invention.

The author has also made a reference to a hadeeth in the book al-Adab (#79) by al-Bukhari. The application of al-ra'y (opinion) in theology has a negative connotation or derogatory/heretical. And this was agreed by al-Ghazali (whose stance was pretty much inline with al-Bukhari).

Continue reading part four

Reference
[1] See the footnote in this book for primary reference

What is a Zahiri?

The following are my notes from the book.

• Theology: madhab al-Zahir or madhab Dawud
• The follower of the school are called Zahiri or Dawudi 
• School of thought: ahl al-Zahiri or al-Zahiriyah

Muslim scholars (studying Islamic law) are broadly classified into 

- ahl al-hadith (people of hadith) : Studying the transmitted source (hadeeth)

- ahl al-ra’y (people of opinion/judgment/ rhetorical): Practical aspect of laws/legal deduction

Madhab al-Fiqh (Sunni Orthodox schools): The determining factor in all these schools is the level of ra’y allowed or permitted. 

The two extreme were the school of Sunni Imam Abu Hanifa and School of Dawud Al-Zahiri. Imam Abu Hanifah allowed considerable level of opinions (ra’y) in his school/madhab. Dawud al-Zahiri completely forbade using opinions to derive Islamic laws.

Initially, the other Sunni Imams i.e., Malik b. Anas (madhab al-Maliki), al-Shafii (madhab al-Shafii) and Ahmad b. Hanbal (madhab al-Hanbali) took a middle position between the two extreme.

After a while, it was no longer apparent (in the course of sects development) if these schools were aligned to the People of Hadeeths or the People of Opinions.

Continue reading part three

Read a book about the Zahiri Islamic law

I finished reading the following book

The Zahiris: Their Doctrine and Their History, a Contribution to the History of Islamic Theology by Ignaz Goldziher

Overall I am highly impressed with the book. It is interesting to read (contains fascinating facts) and a great deal of hair-splitting theologians. I’ll definitely write more in my next posts.

Brief bio about the author

Goldziher was born in 1850 in the Hungarian town of Székesfehérvár into an established Jewish family. His upbringing was very traditional and conservative. He earned his PhD at Leipzig, Germany. His interest was mainly Judaism and Arabic Philosophy. Goldziher traveled widely in the middle-east region (Istanbul, Beirut,Damascus and Cairo). He was also the first non-Muslim to enrolled and studied at the al-Azhar University (Egypt). His work on Zahiri madhab/sect/school of thought is based on the following sources; Ibn Hazm’s Kitab al-Milal wa-Nihal and (Mulakhkha) Ibtal al-qiyas. The author died in 1921. This book was re-produced from his articles and monographs. 

Continue with the notes from the book

Zahiri

From Wiki: Ẓāhirī is a school of thought in Islamic jurisprudence and Aqida. The founder of this school was Dawud ibn Khalaf (d. 270/883), also known as Daud al-Zahiri because of his insistence on sticking to the manifest (zahir) or literal meaning of expressions in the Qur'an and the Sunnah; the school and its followers are called Zahiriyah. Ibn Hazm was a well-known practitioner and teacher of this school.

The modern Salafi movement can be described as influenced by the Zahiri school.