REL 137g 1st Edition Final Exam Study Guide The Classical Synthesis a number of competing tendencies readings and ways of understanding Islam Through organizational categories like law theology philosophy Sufism shiism caliph sultan dichotomy the Arabic language Muslims measure their degree of integrity through conversation with classical synthesis the topics are continually debated because that s what it means to be a Muslim Interpretive authority is necessary because one cannot understand Islam simply by going back to the Qur an and Hadith because Islam is a communal self understanding A body of understandings that are not all in agreement but one cannot fully defeat any of the others in a competition for orthodoxy Those articulations of Islam that become institutionalized and serve as the basis of Muslim self understanding Ibn Hazm a philosopher who was a leading proponent of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought He strongly advocated using reason when reflecting upon the Qur an because human perception can be flawed He wrote about logic in Islamic philosophy and law Asas samit The Silent One Came after the first sic prophets is then followed by the seven imams He is the one who brings the batin the hidden meaning of the message Ali is considered to be The Silent One he brings the new exoteric revelation and pulls back the veil from the words of the Qur an to expose the hidden meaning Ibn Rushd a philosopher who didn t follow any of the schools of law or theology because he so closely followed neoplatonism He was an elitist who believed philosophers were more intelligent than common people He believed that the Qur an was never meant to be taken literally and only with unanimous consensus could an apparent meaning be found The Qur an is true from the perspective of our perception not from the perception of physical reality He wrote The Incoherence of Incoherence Safir of the belief that the 11th Imam who left no heir actually did have a son who was hidden away for his own protection The safir represents the doctrines and views of the Imam with total reliability They are looked upon as heroes who saved the movement The only person who has access to Muhammad the 12th Imam He goes back and forth delivering doctrines He announced that Muhammad has disappeared and moved on to a metaphysical state of existence Sultan the leader of Arabian nations He is the power rather than the authority which falls to the caliph He cannot be caliph because the caliph must come from the tribe of Muhammad The traditional caliphate which had ultimate power ended with the Mongol invasion The Sultan replaced him but this led to decentralization because the sultan can only rule over the state not then entire community Ibn Arabi developed the doctrine of wahdat al wujud a Sufi orientation He says that rather than God descending down to humans God is absolute existence and we are all apart of that existence He supported the effort to realize one s unity with God which some thought was basically pantheism Wahat al wujud the unity of existence The Sufi idea that humans and God are one in the same It is about realizing and acknowledging oneness with God Zayd b Ali is held to be the 5th Imam and brought about the idea that anyone from the Prophet s family can be an Imam who must actively promote the cause of the Shiite community His followers Zaydists are almost indistinguishable from Sunnis They do not subscribe to taqiyya Shah Wali Allah advocated the idea that the root of the cause of the downfall of Indian Muslims was their ignorance of the sacred scripture of Islam He initiated a movement with the theme of going back to the Qur an Enlightenment rationalism liberalism Clearing a way out of the pre modern past Good and evil are open to discussion debate interpretation and negotiation Doctrines are not just what God tells us Puts humans in control of morals As an example it says that a stone is a stone because we decided to call it a stone Intelligible essences the opposite of enlightenment rationalism which argues that things are what they are because of an unidentifiable unknown essence Wahhabi movement a modern form of traditionalism A way to cleanse Arabia Founded by Muhammad Ibn Ahb al Wahhab A local movement within his own community to rid it of Western influences It now has a reputation for being ultra conservative and extremist bordering on violent It is against superstition especially Sufism Supports lesser jihad Believes in getting rid of biddah unsanctioned innovation the opposite of Sunnah Idea that the Prophet perfected Islam and everything after is unsanctioned Advocates going back to the ways of the pious ancestors Jamal al Din al Afghani a political activist and Islamic ideologist one of the early founders of Islamic modernism He advocated pan Islamic unity and was less about theology and more about uniting a Muslim response to Western pressure Rashid Rida died in 1935 A trained jurist working under a modernist regime He recognizes the corruption and decay that has come into Islamic tradition he wants to reform this tradition He also recognizes that some Western things cannot be ignored and they must be taken into consideration when modernizing With Muhammad Abudh he founded the Salafi movement which argues that if Muslims go back to the early pristine generations before Islam expanded they will find themselves much less encumbered and freer to indulge the modern world They could engage with modernity the same way these early communities engaged with foreign cultures societies When picked up by political movements it can turn to radicalism The primary target is not the West but the rulers of their own society who would want to rid governments of religion which they don t think is the way to advancement Ottoman Empire area of the Middle East and Eastern Europe that is now home to many dominantly Muslim nations including Turkey Ikhwan al Muslimun Muslim Brotherhood founded in 1928 by Hasan al Banna Another trend in the post modern era The last Muslim intellectuals who were classically trained as sheiks to lead movements Started a trend of movements being led by Muslims not clerics They believed that though the spirit of Muslim society was broken it had to be healed and repaired This group alone is not able to combat all the problems in Islam ideals alone will not work Operated by the elite students and intellectuals Disapproves of political violence Very powerful and very effectively run