174-738: Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall ; 7 April 1875 – 19 May 1936) was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran , called The Meaning of the Glorious Koran . His translation of the Quran (usually anglicized as "Koran" in Pickthall's era) is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A convert from Christianity to Islam , Pickthall
348-563: A "way of freeing the soul from the distractions of the world". Important early scholars who further elaborated on mysticism were Harith al-Muhasibi (781–857 AD) and Junayd al-Baghdadi (835–910 AD). The early Muslim conquests brought about Arab Muslim rule over large parts of the Hellenistic world . During the time of the Umayyad Caliphate , at latest, the scholars of the emerging Islamic society had become familiar with
522-590: A Hidraj from Mecca to Medina. According to the testimony of the transoxanian scholar Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi (d. 1099) the Kullabites (followers of the Basrian scholar Ibn Kullab (d. 855)) dayed about themselves, that they are among the ahl as-sunna wa l-jama too. Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari used the expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah rarely, and preferred another combination. Later Asharites like al-Isfaranini (d. 1027) nad Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi (d. 1078) used
696-501: A Khateeb (one who speaks). A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, and it is estimated over 85–90% are Sunni. Regarding the question which dogmatic tendencies are to be assigned to Sunnism, there is no agreement among Muslim scholars. Since the early modern period, is the idea that a total of three groups belong to
870-626: A certain act as a religious obligation, another may see the same act as optional. These schools are not regarded as sects; rather, they represent differing viewpoints on issues that are not considered the core of Islamic belief . Historians have differed regarding the exact delineation of the schools based on the underlying principles they follow. Many traditional scholars saw Sunni Islam in two groups: Ahl al-Ra'y , or "people of reason", due to their emphasis on scholarly judgment and discourse; and Ahl al-Hadith , or "people of traditions", due to their emphasis on restricting juristic thought to only what
1044-575: A dynastic absolute monarchy that championed the reformist doctrines of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab ; the eponym of the Wahhabi movement . This was followed by a considerable rise in the influence of the Wahhabi , Salafiyya , Islamist and Jihadist movements that revived the doctrines of the Hanbali theologian Taqi Al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 C.E/ 661–728 A.H), a fervent advocate of
1218-470: A famous follower of Ali , encouraged during the Battle of Siffin with the expression, Ali's political rival Mu'awiya kills the sunna . After the battle, it was agreed that "the righteous Sunnah , the unifying, not the divisive" (" as-Sunna al-ʿādila al-ǧāmiʿa ġair al-mufarriqa ") should be consulted to resolve the conflict. The time when the term sunna became the short form for " Sunnah of
1392-580: A government under the leadership of Mohammed Omar , who was addressed as the Emir of the faithful, an honorific way of addressing the caliph. The Taliban regime was recognised by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia till after 9/11 , perpetrated by Osama bin Laden – a Saudi national by birth and harboured by the Taliban – took place, resulting in a war on terror launched against the Taliban. The sequence of events of
1566-402: A line of thought developed around the idea of mysticism , striving for the perfection ( Ihsan ) of worship. During the first Islamic century, Hasan al-Basri (642–728 AD) was one of the first Muslim scholars to describe, according to Albert Hourani (1991) "the sense of the distance and nearness of God ... in the language of love". During the 7th century, the ritual of Dhikr evolved as
1740-597: A link between the wahhabiyya and parts of the salafiyya movements. The theological differences between the two movements were altogether too large for a complete union of the two doctrines. However, the opening of the Salafi movement towards Wahhabism helped to reconcile the latter with the Islamic public after king Ibn Saud 's invasion of the Hijaz in 1924. The Central Arabian militias ( Iḫwān ) had occupied and looted
1914-423: A movement called ahl al-hadith under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal . In matters of faith, they were pitted against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrine as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them. In the 10th century AD al-Ash'ari and al-Maturidi found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using
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#17328022873972088-425: A number of students out of the revenue from religious endowments ( waqf ) , allocated to a specific institution by the donor. In later times, the deeds of endowment were issued in elaborate Islamic calligraphy , as is the case for Ottoman endowment books (vakıf-name) . The donor could also specify the subjects to be taught, the qualification of the teachers, or which madhhab the teaching should follow. Moreover,
2262-648: A period of political instability began with the collapse of the Safavid reign after shah Sultan Husayns death in 1722. In the light of the discontinuity and fragmentation of the central government, two social groups maintained continuity and, consequently, rose in power: Tribal chieftains established, amongst others, the Khanates of the Caucasus , the Afsharid and Zand dynasties . The second group who benefitted from
2436-541: A private activity, largely by medical men, pursued with discretion, and often met with suspicion". The founder of Islamic philosophical ethics is Ibn Miskawayh (932–1030 AD) He combined Aristotelian and Islamic ethics, explicitly mentioning the Nicomachean Ethics and its interpretation by Porphyry of Gaza as the foundation of his philosophical thoughts. In the 12th century, the early Islamic Neoplatonism which had developed out of Hellenistic philosophy
2610-475: A scholar of Islamic law ( sharia ) or Islamic theology ( Kalām ). Both religious and political leadership are in principle open to all Muslims. According to the Islamic Center of Columbia , South Carolina , anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a well-educated person to lead the service, known as
2784-644: A successor. Before declaring his faith as a Muslim, Pickthall was a strong ally of the Ottoman Empire . He studied the Orient , and published articles and novels on the subject. While in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad , Pickthall published his English translation of the Quran with the title The Meaning of the Glorious Koran . The translation was authorized by the Al-Azhar University and
2958-471: Is a movement which emerged in North India in the mid-19th century. By rejecting taqlid (following legal precedent) and favoring ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) based on the foundational scriptures of Islam, they oppose the traditional madhhab and criticize their reliance on legal authorities other than the traditional texts. The Ahl-i Hadith was the first organization which printed and spread
3132-514: Is also found in the Qur'an , according to Sunnis. Therefore, narratives of companions are also reliably taken into account for knowledge of the Islamic faith. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Qur'an . Sunni Islam does not have a formal hierarchy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become
3306-711: Is also used on Western research literature to denote the Sunni-Shia contrast. One of the earliest supporting documents for ahl as-sunna derives from the Basric scholar Muhammad Ibn Siri (d. 728). His is mentioned in the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj quoted with: "Formerly one did not ask about the Isnad . But when the fitna started, one said: 'Name us your informants'. One would then respond to them: If they were Sunnah people, you accept their hadith. But if they are people of
3480-519: Is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself. The works of Aristotle , in particular his Nicomachean Ethics , had a profound influence on the Islamic scholars of the Golden Age like Al-Farabi (870–950 AD), Abu al-Hassan al-Amiri (d. 992 AD) and Ibn Sina (ca. 980–1037 AD). In general, the Islamic philosophers saw no contradiction between philosophy and
3654-512: Is forbidden even if it verifies the truth. They engage in a literal reading of the Qur'an , as opposed to one engaged in ta'wil (metaphorical interpretation). They do not attempt to conceptualize the meanings of the Qur'an rationally, and believe that their realities should be consigned to God alone ( tafwid ). In essence, the text of the Qur'an and Hadith is accepted without asking "how" or " Bi-la kaifa ". Traditionalist theology emerged among scholars of hadith who eventually coalesced into
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#17328022873973828-752: Is found in scripture. Ibn Khaldun defined the Sunni schools as three: the Hanafi school representing reason, the Ẓāhirīte school representing tradition, and a broader, middle school encompassing the Shafi'ite , Malikite and Hanbalite schools. During the Middle Ages , the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt delineated the acceptable Sunni schools as only Hanafi , Maliki , Shafi'i and Hanbali , excluding
4002-665: Is known among his followers as caliph and Amir-al-mu'mineen , "The Commander of the Faithful". Jihadism is opposed from within the Muslim community (known as the ummah in Arabic) in all quarters of the world as evidenced by turnout of almost 2% of the Muslim population in London protesting against ISIL. Following the puritan approach of Ibn Kathir , Muhammad Rashid Rida , etc. many contemporary Tafsir (exegetic treatises) downplay
4176-460: Is known as the ijazat at-tadris wa 'l-ifta ( lit. ' license to teach and issue legal opinions ' ). Through time, this practice has established a chain of teachers and pupils who have become teachers in their own time. The traditional place of higher education is the madrasa . The institution likely originated in Khurasan during the 10th century AD, and spread to other parts of
4350-438: Is motivated by political discourse or by traditionalist thought alone. The usage of tafsir'ilmi is another notable characteristic of modern Sunni tafsir. Tafsir'ilmi stands for alleged scientific miracles found in the Qur'an. In short, the idea is that the Qur'an contains knowledge about subjects an author of the 7th century could not possibly have. Such interpretations are popular among many commentators. Some scholars, such as
4524-468: Is not contradicted by the Quran. Therefore, when God states in the Quran, "He who does not resemble any of His creation", this clearly means that God cannot be attributed with body parts because He created body parts. Ash'aris tend to stress divine omnipotence over human free will and they believe that the Quran is eternal and uncreated. Founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944), the Maturidiyyah
4698-551: Is recorded by Masrūq ibn al-Adschdaʿ (d. 683), who was a Mufti in Kufa , a need to love the first two caliphs Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and acknowledge their priority ( Fadā'il ). A disciple of Masrūq, the scholar ash-Shaʿbī (d. between 721 und 729), who first sided with the Shia in Kufa during Civil War, but turned away in disgust by their fanaticism and finally decided to join
4872-604: Is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammad's death, and that Sufism and Shi'ism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is partly due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works, and also because the vast majority of the population is Sunni. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of several centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines. The first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as
5046-512: Is to be excluded from Ahl al-Sunna wal Jama'ah , unless they openly disapprove of the doctrines of the Salaf ( mad'hab as-Salaf ). According to Albani: "I do not share [the view of] some of the noble scholars of the past and present that we say about a group from the [many] Islamic groups that it is not from Ahlus-Sunnah due to its deviation in one issue or another... as for whether the Ash’aris or
5220-561: Is used, for example, in the final document of the Grozny Conference . Only those "people of the Hadith" are assigned to Sunnism who practice tafwīḍ , i.e. who refrain from interpreting the ambiguous statements of the Quran. Founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (873–935). This theological school of Aqeedah was embraced by many Muslim scholars and developed in parts of the Islamic world throughout history; al-Ghazali wrote on
5394-802: Is used, the Ashʿarites and Māturīdites are meant. This position was also taken over by the Egyptian Fatwa Office in July 2013. In Ottoman times, many efforts were made to establish a good harmony between the teachings of the Ashʿarīya and the Māturīdīya. Finally, there were also scholars who regarded the Ashʿarites alone as Sunnis. For example, the Moroccan Sufi Ahmad ibn ʿAdschiba (d. 1809) stated in his commentary on Fatiha : "As far as
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5568-629: Is what distinguishes the Sufis from Sunnis according to as-Saksakī their orientation to the hidden inner meaning of the Qur'an and the Sunnah . In this, he said, they resemble the Bātinites . According to the final document of the Grozny Conference, only those Sufis are to be regarded as Sunnis who are "people of pure Sufism" ( ahl at-taṣauwuf aṣ-ṣāfī ) in the knowledge, ethics and purification of
5742-416: The sahaba , tabi'in , and tabi al-tabi'in as the salaf (predecessors). The Arabic term sunna , according to which Sunnis are named, is old and roots in pre-Islamic language. It was used for traditions which a majority of people followed. The term got greater political significance after the murder of the third caliph Uthman ( r. 644–656 ). It is said Malik al-Ashtar ,
5916-526: The Qur'an and sunnah . The name derives from "tradition" in its technical sense as translation of the Arabic word hadith . It is also sometimes referred to as athari as by several other names . Adherents of traditionalist theology believe that the zahir (literal, apparent) meaning of the Qur'an and the hadith have sole authority in matters of belief and law; and that the use of rational disputation
6090-690: The Times Literary Supplement praised his efforts by writing "noted translator of the glorious Quran into English language, a great literary achievement." Pickthall was conscripted in the last months of World War I and became corporal in charge of an influenza isolation hospital. When news of the Armenian genocide reached Britain, Pickthall frequently wrote in defense of the Ottomans by downplaying atrocities committed against Armenians, whom he also made derogatory remarks about. During
6264-411: The ijazah , the scholar's approval by another master, is key to the scholar's reputation, the latter would be greater in regions where the approving masters is more widely known. The second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab , funded a group of Muslims to study the revelations, stories of Muhammed's life, "and other pertinent data, so that when he needed expert advice" he could draw it from these "people of
6438-674: The Bombay Chronicle , On the behest of Nizam of Hyderabad he was appointed Principal at Chadarghat High School in the Princely State of Hyderabad in 1926. The Nizam ’s Government proposed to establish a Publicity Bureau in the Hyderabad State as it appeared in the Mushir-i-Deccan on 14 June 1931, that Marmaduke Pickthall is to be appointed Publicity Officer in addition to his own duties as Principal of
6612-765: The Chadarghat High School . Returning to England only in 1935, a year before his death at St Ives, Cornwall. Pickthall was buried in the Muslim section at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England, where Abdullah Yusuf Ali was later buried. Islamic scholar In Islam , the ulama ( / ˈ uː l ə ˌ m ɑː / ; Arabic : علماء , romanized : ʿulamāʾ , lit. 'the learned ones'; singular Arabic : عالِم , romanized : ʿālim ; feminine singular alimah ; plural aalimath ), also spelled ulema , are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered
6786-508: The Hanafi school while followers of the Shafi and Maliki schools within the empire followed the Ash'ari and Athari schools of thought. Thus, wherever can be found Hanafi followers, there can be found the Maturidi creed. Traditionalist or Athari theology is a movement of Islamic scholars who reject rationalistic Islamic theology ( kalam ) in favor of strict textualism in interpreting
6960-669: The Innovations , the hadith was rejected." G.H.A. Juynboll assumed, the term fitna in this statement is not related to the first Civil War (665–661) after murder of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān , but the second Civil War (680–692) in which the Islamic community was split into four parties ( Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , the Umayyads , the Shia under al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ʿUbaid and the Kharijites). The term ahl as-sunna designated in this situation whose, who stayed away from heretic teachings of
7134-776: The Ja'fari and Zaidi schools. Minor madhhab also mentioned in the Amman message are the Ibadi and the Zahiri schools. All Sunni madhhabs recognize four sources of sharia (divine law): the Quran, sunnah (authentic hadith), qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (juridical consensus). However, the madhhabs differ from each other in their conception of the Principles of Islamic jurisprudence , or uṣūl al-fiqh , as briefly summarised by Hourani (1991). The Hanbalis accepted only
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7308-557: The Koran – Scholars, 6. the Sufi ascetics ( az-zuhhād aṣ-ṣūfīya ), 7. those who perform the ribat and jihad against the enemies of Islam, 8. the general crowd. According to this classification, the Sufis are one of a total of eight groups within Sunnism, defined according to their religious specialization. The Tunisian scholar Muhammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Bakkī (d. 1510) also included
7482-648: The Prophet " (S unnat an-Nabī ) is still unknown. During the Umayyad Caliphate , several political movements, including the Shia and the Kharijites rebelled against the formation of the state. They led their battles in the name of "the book of God ( Qur'an ) and the Sunnah of his Prophet". During the second Civil War (680–92) the Sunna-term received connotations critical of Shi'i doctrines ( Tashayyu' ). It
7656-599: The Rāshidun or "Rightly-Guided Ones". Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar as the second, Uthman as the third, and Ali as the fourth. Sunnis recognised different rulers as the caliph , though they did not include anyone in the list of the rightly guided ones or Rāshidun after the murder of Ali, until the caliphate was constitutionally abolished in Turkey on 3 March 1924. The seeds of metamorphosis of caliphate into kingship were sown, as
7830-614: The Sufis are also part of Sunnism. This view can already be found in the Shafi'ite scholar Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi (d. 1037). In his heresiographical work al-Farq baina l-firaq he divided the Sunnis into eight different categories ( aṣnāf ) of people: 1. the theologians and Kalam Scholars, 2. the Fiqh scholars, 3. the traditional and Hadith scholars, 4. the Adab and language scholars, 5.
8004-401: The Woking Mosque and in London. Some of his khutbas (sermons) were subsequently published. For a year he ran the Islamic Information Bureau in London, which issued a weekly paper, The Muslim Outlook . Pickthall and Quran translator Yusuf Ali were trustees of both the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking and the East London Mosque . In 1920 he went to India with his wife to serve as editor of
8178-427: The companions of Muhammad to be reliable transmitters of Islam, since God and Muhammad accepted their integrity. Medieval sources even prohibit cursing or vilifying them. This belief is based upon prophetic traditions such as one narrated by Abdullah, son of Masud , in which Muhammad said: "The best of the people are my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them." Support for this view
8352-401: The madrasas focuses on the law, but also includes what Zaman (2010) called "Sharia sciences" (al-ʿulūm al-naqliyya) as well as the rational sciences like philosophy, astronomy, mathematics or medicine. The inclusion of these sciences sometimes reflects the personal interests of their donors, but also indicates that scholars often study various different sciences. Early on in Islamic history,
8526-414: The nature of God and the divine attributes, the Ash'ari rejected the Mu'tazili position that all Quranic references to God as having real attributes were metaphorical. The Ash'aris insisted that these attributes were as they "best befit His Majesty". The Arabic language is a wide language in which one word can have 15 different meanings, so the Ash'aris endeavor to find the meaning that best befits God and
8700-509: The principles of jurisprudence developed by the traditional legal schools . In matters of creed , the Sunni tradition upholds the six pillars of iman (faith) and comprises the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of kalam (theology) as well as the textualist Athari school. Sunnis regard the first four caliphs Abu Bakr ( r. 632–634 ), Umar ( r. 634–644 ), Uthman ( r. 644–656 ) and Ali ( r. 656–661 ) as rashidun (rightly-guided) and revere
8874-427: The ummah . His temporal authority would be set up in the Hejaz , whilst he would hold religious authority over the entire Muslim community, "assisted ... by a consultative council nominated by the Muslim rulers". Al-Kawākibīs idea that the Arabian doctrine represented a more puristic form of the Islam, according to Cleveland and Bunton (2016), prepared the ground for the 20th century Arab nationalism as well as
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#17328022873979048-491: The 11th century on, the Muʿtazila was suppressed by the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate and the Seljuk Empire , but it continued playing an important role in the formation of Shia theology. The Ash'ari school encouraged the use of Kalām as the basis of fiqh, and was followed in this approach by parts of the Shafi'i madhhab. In contrast, the Hanbali and Maliki madhhabs discouraged theological speculation. Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (853–944 AD) developed his own form of Kalām, differing from
9222-461: The 16th century, scholars like the Shaykh al-Islām Kemālpaşazade (d. 1534), Aḥmād b. Muṣṭafā Taşköprüzāde (1494–1561), Kınalızāde ʿAli Çelebi (d. 1572) and Ali ben Bali (1527–1584) established a seamless chain of tradition from Abu Hanifa to their own time. Explicitly, some authors stated that their work must not only be understood as the historiography of the Hanafi madhhab , but that it should be consulted in case of eventual disagreements within
9396-444: The 18th century, and shaped the relationship between ulama and government during the reigns of the subsequent dynasties. With the accession of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar to the Iranian throne, the Qajar dynasty consolidated the central power. However, the Qajar Shahs, in particular Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–1896), whose reign paralleled that of the Ottoman Sultans of the Tanzimat time, failed at obtaining central control over
9570-423: The 1980, the Nahdlatul Ulama schools also offered degrees in economy, jurisdiction, paedagogical and medical sciences. In the 1990s, under their leader Abdurrahman Wahid , the organization adopted an anti-fundamentalistic doctrine, teaching democracy and pluralism. Darul Uloom Deoband , next to al-Azhar one of the most influential madrasas, was founded in the city of Deoband , Uttar Pradesh , in 1867. Initially,
9744-446: The 20th century has led to resentment in some quarters of the Sunni community due to the loss of pre-eminence in several previously Sunni-dominated regions such as the Levant , Mesopotamia , the Balkans , the North Caucasus and the Indian sub continent . The latest attempt by a radical wing of Salafi-Jihadists to re-establish a Sunni caliphate was seen in the emergence of the militant group ISIL , whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
9918-419: The 9th century. It is recorded that the disciple of Ahmad ibn Hanbal Harb ibn Ismail as-Sirjdshani (d. 893) created a writing with the title as-Sunna wa l-Jamāʿah , to which the Mutazilite Abu al-Qasim al-Balchi wrote a refutation later. Al-Jubba'i (d. 916) tells in his Kitāb al-Maqālāt , that Ahmad ibn Hanbal attributed to his students the predicate sunnī jamāʿah ("Jammatic Sunnite"). This indicates that
10092-407: The Ash'ari view in the question of Man's free will and God's omnipotence. Maturidi Kalām was often used in combination with Hanafi fiqh in the northwestern parts of the Islamic world. A distinct school of theology often called traditionalist theology emerged under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the early centuries of Islam among hadith scholars who rejected rationalistic argumentation. In
10266-420: The Asharites from the circle of Sunnis in the special sense and took the view that only the pious ancestors ( as-salaf aṣ-ṣāliḥ ) who have agreed on the Sunnah belonged to this circle. The Muʿtazilites are usually not regarded as Sunnis. Ibn Hazm , for example, contrasted them with the Sunnis as a separate group in his heresiographic work al-Faṣl fi-l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-n-niḥal . In many medieval texts from
10440-533: The Commentators of Al-Azhar University , reject this approach, arguing the Qur'an is a text for religious guidance, not for science and scientific theories that may be disproved later; thus tafsir'ilmi might lead to interpreting Qur'anic passages as falsehoods. Modern trends of Islamic interpretation are usually seen as adjusting to a modern audience and purifying Islam from alleged alterings, some of which are believed to be intentional corruptions brought into Islam to undermine and corrupt its message. Sunnis believe
10614-428: The Deoband School. Ashraf Ali Thanwi (1863–1943) is one of the most prominent teachers of Darul Uloom Deoband. Thanwi initiated and edited multi-volume encyclopedic commentaries on the Quran. However, he was also able to reach out to a larger audience: His book Bahishti Zewar , which is still widely read in South Asia, as it details, amongst other topics, the proper conduct and beliefs for Muslim women. Ahl-i Hadith
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#173280228739710788-509: The Hanbalis were the first to use the phrase ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah as a self-designation. The Karramiyya founded by Muhammad ibn Karram (d. 859) referred to the sunnah and community. They passed down in praise of their school founder a hadith, according to which Muhammad predicted that at the end of times a man named Muhammad ibn Karram will appear, who will restore the sunna and the community ( as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah ) and take Hidraj from Chorasan to Jerusalem, just how Muhammad himself took
10962-417: The Hanbalites. The late Ottoman thinker İsmail Hakkı İzmirli [ tr ] (d. 1946), who agreed to dividing Sunnis into these three groups, called the traditionalist group Salafiyya , but also used Athariyya as an alternative term. For the Maturidiyya he gives Nasafīyya as a possible alternative name. Another used for the traditionalist-oriented group is "people of Hadith " ( ahl al-ḥadīṯ ). It
11136-421: The Islamic East, the Ahl as-Sunna are also differentiated to the Muʿtazilites. In 2010 the Jordanian fatwa office ruled out in a fatwa that the Muʿtazilites, like the Kharijites, represent a doctrine that is contrary to Sunnism. Ibn Taymiyya argued that the Muʿtazilites belong to the Sunnis in the general sense because they recognize the caliphate of the first three caliphs. There is broad agreement that
11310-498: The Islamic doctrine. After Abduh's death in 1905, Rashīd Ridā continued editing al-Manār on his own. In 1924, he published a collection of writings by some ulama of Najd : Maǧmūʿat al-ḥadiṭ an-naǧdīya . Thus, the teachings of the Yemeni alim Muhammad ash-Shawkani (1759–1839), which had already been discussed since the 1880s, gained greater publicity. Likewise, the writings of the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328) came to attention again. Ibn Taymiyyah's doctrine provided
11484-423: The Islamic renewal movement of the Nahda . In 1912, the Muhammadiyah organization was founded in Yogyakarta (in modern-day Indonesia ), which, together with Nahdlatul Ulama ("Reawakening of the ulama"), founded in 1926, form the two largest Muslim organizations in the world. Since the 1930s, their religious boarding schools ( pesantren ) also taught mathematics, natural sciences, English and history. Since
11658-442: The Islamic world from the late 11th century onwards. The most famous early madrasas are the Sunni Niẓāmiyya , founded by the Seljuk vizir Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) in Iran and Iraq in the 11th century. The Mustansiriya , established by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mustansir in Baghdad in 1234 AD, was the first to be founded by a caliph, and also the first known to host teachers of all four major madhhab known at that time. From
11832-424: The Islamic world to another can easily integrate themselves into the local Muslim community and hold offices there: The traveller Ibn Battuta (1304–1368 or 1369), born in Tangiers , Morocco, to a family of ulema, was appointed qadi by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq of Delhi . Nuruddin ar-Raniri (d. 1658), born to a Gujarati Muslim family, travelled to, and worked as Shaykh ul-Islam in modern-day Indonesia under
12006-425: The Islamic world. ʿAbduh understood Islah as a concept of "reform of mankind" (iṣlāḥ nauʿ al-insān) . In his works, he emphasized the special importance of a reform of the traditional madrasa system, which was taken to disadvantage by the parallel establishment of the secular, state-sponsored educational system in Egypt. He strove at reconciling the traditional and modern educational systems, thereby justifying from
12180-437: The Maaturidis are from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah , I say that they are from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah in many things related to aqidah but in other aqidah issues they have deviated away from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah.. I don't hold that we should say that they are not from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah whatsoever" The Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) distinguished in his work Minhāj as-sunna between Sunnis in
12354-437: The Ottoman law scholars "Hanafi of Rūm [i.e., the Ottoman Empire]" (Rūmi ḫānāfi) , "Scholars of Rūm" (ʿulamā'-ı rūm) or "Scholars of the Ottoman Empire" ( ʿulamā' al-dawla al-ʿUthmaniyyā ). The Shaykh al-Islām ( Turkish : Şeyhülislam ) in Istanbul became the highest-ranking Islamic scholar within, and head of the ulama throughout the empire. The ulama in the Ottoman Empire had a significant influence over politics due to
12528-532: The Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II of corrupting the Islamic community . The Ottoman despotism "encroaches on the rights of its citizens, keeps them ignorant to keep them passive, [and] denies their right to take an active part in human life". Therefore, the law must be reformed. By the use of ijtihad , a "modern and unified system of law" must be created, and "proper religious education" must be provided. Because of
12702-556: The Qadarites here. In the 9th century, one started to extent the term ahl as-sunna with further positive additions. Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari used for his own group expressions like ahl as-sunna wa-l-istiqāma ("people of Sunna and Straightness"), ahl as-sunna wa-l-ḥadīṯ ("people of Sunnah and of the Hadith") or ahl al-ḥaqq wa-s-sunna ("people of Truth and of the Sunnah"). When the expression 'ahl as-sunna wa l-jama'ah appeared for
12876-494: The Quran and sunnah of the Prophet. The capacity of its interpretation lies with the ulama. By the eleventh century, the major schools of Sunni and Shia law ( madhhab ) had emerged. Whilst, historically, the schools were at times engaged in mutual conflicts, the differences became less controversial over time, and merely represent regional predominances today. The four most important Sunni schools are: Shia madhhab include
13050-414: The Quran and Hadith. Supplementing the sharia were customs ( ʿurf ) within a given society. Islamic law and regional customs were not opposed to each other: In 15th century Morocco, qadis were allowed to use a process called ʻamal in order to choose from different juridical opinions one which applied best to the local customs, even if they were not supported by the consensus of the majority. More often,
13224-527: The Shah. Thus, under the Qajar dynasty, the ulama provided a source of religious legitimacy and served as interpreters of religious law in a dual legal system where the state administered law based on custom ( ʻurf ) . Starting in the first half of the 19th century, direct contacts began and gradually increased between members of the ulama and modern Western Europe. The Egyptian alim Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (1801–1873)
13398-630: The Shaykh al-Islām Ahīzāde Ḥüseyin Efendi. In 1656, Shaykh al-Islām Ḥocazāde Mesʿud Efendi was sentenced to death by sultan Mehmed IV . The use of the Sunni Islam as a legitimisation of the Ottoman dynastic rule is closely linked to Sultan Süleyman I and his kazasker and later Schaykh al-Islām Ebussuud Efendi . Ebussuud compiled an imperial book of law ( ḳānūn-nāme ), which combined religious law (sharīʿah) with secular dynastic law ( ḳānūn ) in
13572-464: The Sufis from Sunnism. The Yemeni scholar ʿAbbās ibn Mansūr as-Saksakī (d. 1284) explained in his doxographic work al-Burhān fī maʿrifat ʿaqāʾid ahl al-adyān ("The evidence of knowledge of the beliefs of followers of different religions") about the Sufis: "They associate themselves with the Sunnis, but they do not belong to them, because they contradict them in their beliefs, actions and teachings." That
13746-461: The Sufis in Sunnism. He divided the Sunnis into the following three groups according to their knowledge ( istiqrāʾ ): Similarly, Murtadā az-Zabīdī stated elsewhere in his commentary on Ghazzali's Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn that the Sunnis consisted of four groups (firaq ), namely the hadith scholars ( muḥaddiṯhūn), the Sufis, the Ashʿarites and the Māturīdites. Some ulema wanted to exclude
13920-518: The Sunni Creed by at-Tahawi (d. 933), the term jama contrasts several times the Arabic term furqa ("division, sectarianism"). Thus at-Tahāwī explains that jama is considered as true or right ( ḥaqq wa-ṣawāb ) and furqa as aberration and punishment ( zaiġ wa-ʿaḏāb ). Ibn Taymiyyah argues, that jama as opposite term to furqa inherents the meaning of iǧtimāʿ ("Coming together, being together, agreement"). Furthermore, he connects it with
14094-524: The Sunni Hanafi doctrine which then served as the official religious doctrine of the empire. The formal acknowledgment by decree of the sultan became a prerequisite to issue fatwas. In the 17th century, the annalist al-Hamawi used the expression "sultanic mufti" ( al-ifta' al-sultani ) to delineate the difference between the officially appointed religious leaders and those who had followed the traditional way of education. Other authors at that time called
14268-399: The Sunni concept of analogy (qiyās) , Shia ulama prefer "dialectical reasoning" ( 'Aql ) to deduce law. The body of substantive jurisprudence ( fiqh ) defines the proper way of life through interpretation of sharia , which Muslims should follow if they want to live according to God's will. Over time, the madhhabs established "codes of conduct", examining human actions in the light of
14442-666: The Sunnis are concerned, it is the Ashʿarites and those who follow in their correct belief." Conversely, there were also scholars who excluded the Ashʿarites from Sunnism. The Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) said that Abu l-Hasan al-Ashʿarī belonged to the Murji'a , namely those who were particularly far removed from the Sunnis in terms of faith. Twentieth-century Syrian - Albanian Athari Salafi theologian Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani rejected extremism in excluding Ash'aris from Sunni Islam. He believed that despite that their fundamental differences from Atharis, not every Ash'ari
14616-531: The Sunnis: 1. those named after Abu l-Hasan al-Aschʿari (d. 935) Ashʿarites , 2. those named after Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 941) named Maturidites and 3. a differently named third group, which is traditionalistic-oriented and rejects the rational discourse of Kalām advocated by the Maturidites and Ashʿarites. The Syrian scholar ʿAbd al-Baqi Ibn Faqih Fussa (d. 1661) calls this third traditionalist group
14790-542: The Umayyad Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik , popularized the concept of Sunnah . It is also passed down by asch-Shaʿbī, that he took offensive at the hatred on ʿĀʾiša bint Abī Bakr and considered it a violation of the Sunnah . The term Sunna instead of the longer expression ahl as-sunna or ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah as a group-name for Sunnis is a relatively young phenomenon. It was probably Ibn Taymiyyah , who used
14964-452: The basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence in his book ar-Risālah . The book details the four roots of law (Qur'an, Sunnah , ijma , and qiyas ) while specifying that the primary Islamic texts (the Qur'an and the hadith) must be understood according to objective rules of interpretation derived from scientific study of the Arabic language. According to Feldman (2008), under many Muslim caliphate states and later states ruled by sultans,
15138-462: The beginning of the 19th century, the Ottoman ulama still retained their political influence. When sultan Selim III tried to reform the Ottoman army , the ulama opposed his plans, which they rejected as an apostasy from Islam . Consequently, his reform failed. However, Selims successor Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) was more successful: He called the new troops, organised according to European models, by
15312-571: The belief in God and in life after death, which together provide the foundation of action in the pursuit of sa'āda (Happiness). According to Shia Islam , the authority to interpret the messages of the Quran and the Hadith lies with the Imamah , a line of infallible interpreters of the truth. The Sunni majority, however, reject this concept and maintain that God's will has been completely revealed in
15486-459: The belief that secular institutions were all subordinate to Islamic law, the Sharia ( Turkish : Şeriat ). The ulama were responsible for interpreting the religious law, therefore they claimed that their power superseded that of the government. Within the Ottoman hierarchy of ulama, the Shaykh al-Islām held the highest rank. He exerted his influence by issuing fatwas, his written interpretations of
15660-490: The bench". According to Tamim Ansary , this group evolved into the Ulama The formative period of Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with pragmatic issues of authority and teaching than with theory. Progress in theory began to develop with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i (767–820), who codified
15834-549: The caliphate to an end. This resulted in Sunni protests in far off places including the Khilafat Movement in India, which was later on upon gaining independence from Britain divided into Sunni dominated Pakistan and secular India . Pakistan, the most populous Sunni state at its dawn, was later partitioned into Pakistan and Bangladesh . The demise of Ottoman caliphate also resulted in the emergence of Saudi Arabia ,
16008-573: The central position of the Arabic peoples in the ummah and the Arabic language in the intellectual discourse, but also because "Arabian Islam is ... free from modern corruptions and the bedouin are free from the moral decay and passivity of despotism", the balance of power must shift from the Turks towards the Arabs. The Ottoman dynasty must give up their claim to the caliphate , and a new caliph of Quraysh descent must be elected by representatives of
16182-698: The classical philosophical and scientific traditions of the world they had conquered. The collection of classical works and their translation into the Arabian language initiated a period which is known today as the Islamic Golden Age . According to Hourani (1991), the works of the classical scholars of antiquity were met with considerable intellectual curiosity by Islamic scholars. Hourani quotes al-Kindi (c. 801–873 AD), "the father of Islamic philosophy", as follows: We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it
16356-461: The concept of an afterlife. Ethics on the other hand, do not need prophecy or revelation, but can be understood by reason alone. One of the tribes, the Seljuk Turks , migrated to Turkey , where later the Ottoman Empire was established. Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire although it continued to be followed almost exclusively by followers of
16530-548: The consensus of the Companions of the Prophet (aṣ-ṣaḥābah) , which gave more leeway to independent reasoning ( ijtihad ) within the boundaries of the rules of qiyās . The Hanafis hold that strict analogy may at times be supported by a limited use of juristic preference ( istihsan ) , whereas the Maliki school also allows pragmatic considerations in the interest of public welfare ( istislah ) are also acceptable. Instead of
16704-579: The course of the 19th century, this new elite carried on the Sultan's reforms and helped initiating a new era of reform, the Tanzimat . In parallel, the political influence of the ulama was circumvented and reduced step by step. A ministry for religious endowments was created in order to control the finances of the vakıf . Thus, the ulama lost direct control over their finances, which significantly reduced their capacity to exert political influence. In Iran,
16878-491: The creed discussing it and agreeing upon some of its principles. Ash'ari theology stresses divine revelation over human reason. Contrary to the Mu'tazilites, they say that ethics cannot be derived from human reason, but that God's commands, as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the practices of Muhammad and his companions as recorded in the traditions, or hadith ), are the sole source of all morality and ethics. Regarding
17052-486: The death of his father in 1881 the family moved to London. He attended Harrow School but left after six terms. As a schoolboy at Harrow, Pickthall was a classmate and friend of Winston Churchill . Pickthall travelled across many Eastern countries, gaining a reputation as a Middle-Eastern scholar, at a time when the institution of the Caliphate had collapsed with the Muslim world failing to find consensus on appointing
17226-411: The deeds of the Ottoman sultans in terms of idealised Islamic ghazi warriors. According to Burak (2015), the Ottoman literature genres of the "rank order" ( Turkish : tabaḳat and the "biografic lexicon" ( Turkish : Eş-şakaiku'n ) compiled the biographies of scholars in such ways as to create a concise and coherent tradition of the doctrine and structure of the Ottoman imperial scholarship. During
17400-434: The different warring parties. The term ahl as-sunna was always a laudatory designation. Abu Hanifa (d. 769), who sympathized with Murdshia , insisted that this were "righteous people and people of the Sunnah" ( ahl al-ʿadl wa-ahl as-sunna ). According to Josef van Ess this term did not mean more than "honorable and righteous believing people". Among Hanafits the designation ahl as-sunna and ahl al-ʿadl (people of
17574-844: The distinction between a broader and narrower circle of Sunnis from Ibn Taimiya, said that Kullabiyya and the Ashʿarīyya are Sunnis in the general sense, while the Salafiyya represent Sunnis in the specific sense. About the Maturidiyya he only says that they are closer to the Salafiyya than the Ashʿariyya because they excel more in Fiqh than in Kalām . The Saudi scholar Muhammad Ibn al-ʿUthaimin (d. 2001), who like Ibn Taimiya differentiated between Sunnis in general and special senses, also excluded
17748-462: The donor is free to specify in detail the curriculum, as was shown by Ahmed and Filipovic (2004) for the Ottoman imperial madrasas founded by Suleiman the Magnificent . As Berkey (1992) has described in detail for the education in medieval Cairo , unlike medieval Western universities, in general madrasas have no distinct curriculum , and do not issue diplomas . The educational activities of
17922-534: The earlier significance of Biblical material ( Isrā'iliyyāt ). Half of the Arab commentaries reject Isrā'iliyyāt in general, while Turkish tafsir usually partly allow referring to Biblical material. Nevertheless, most non-Arabic commentators regard them as useless or not applicable. A direct reference to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict could not be found. It remains unclear whether the refusal of Isrā'iliyyāt
18096-439: The egalitarian society formed as a result of Muhammad's revolution to a society stratified between haves and have-nots as a result of nepotism , and in the words of El-Hibri through "the use of religious charity revenues ( zakāt ) to subsidise family interests, which Uthman justified as ' al-sila ' (pious filial support)". Ali, during his rather brief regime after Uthman maintained austere life style and tried hard to bring back
18270-533: The egalitarian system and supremacy of law over the ruler idealised in Muhammad's message, but faced continued opposition, and wars one after another by Aisha - Talhah - Zubair , by Muāwiya and finally by the Khārjites . After he was murdered, his followers immediately elected Hasan ibn Ali his elder son from Fātima to succeed him. Hasan shortly afterward signed a treaty with Muāwiya relinquishing power in favour of
18444-626: The elder of the two sons of the Reverend Charles Grayson Pickthall (1822–1881) and his second wife, Mary Hale, née O'Brien (1836–1904). Charles was an Anglican clergyman, the rector of Chillesford , a village near Woodbridge, Suffolk . The Pickthalls traced their ancestry to a knight of William the Conqueror , Sir Roger de Poictu, from whom their surname derives. Mary, of the Irish Inchiquin clan,
18618-476: The establishment of firm dynastic rule of Banu Umayya after Husain , the younger son of Ali from Fātima , was killed at the Battle of Karbalā . The rise to power of Banu Umayya, the Meccan tribe of elites who had vehemently opposed Muhammad under the leadership of Abu Sufyān , Muāwiya's father, right up to the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad, as his successors with the accession of Uthman to caliphate, replaced
18792-522: The expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah too and used them in their works to designate the teachings of their own school. According to al-Bazdawi all Asharites in his time said they belong to the ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah . During this time, the term has been used as a self-designation by the hanafite Maturidites in Transoxiania, used frequently by Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 983), Abu Schakur as-Salimi (d. 1086) and al-Bazdawi himself. They used
18966-406: The first time, is not entirely clear. The Abbasite Caliph Al-Ma'mūn (reigned 813–33) criticized in his Mihna edict a group of people, who related themselves to the sunnah ( nasabū anfusa-hum ilā s-sunna ) and claimed, they are the "people of truth, religion and community" ( ahl al-ḥaqq wa-d-dīn wa-l-jamāʿah ). Sunna and jamāʿah are already connected here. As a pair, these terms already appear in
19140-662: The founders of the School of Isfahan , and Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ardabili (d. 1585). By their teachings, they further developed the Shi'a Islamic teachings and religious practice. However, as religion did no longer suffice to support political power in Persia, Abbas I had to develop independent concepts to legitimise his rule. He did so by creating a new ghulam army, thus evoking the Turco-Mongol tradition of Timur and his reign. By
19314-440: The founders of the political Islam and of the late 19th and 20th century Salafi movement . The Egyptian Grand Mufti Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905), who was granted the degree of 'Alim by al-Azhar university in 1877, was the first who used the term Islāh in order to denote political and religious reforms. Until 1887 he edited together with al-Afghani the newspaper al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā ("The firm bond"). The gazette widely spread
19488-529: The founders of the four schools viz, Abu Hanifa , Malik ibn Anas , Shāfi'i and Ahmad bin Hanbal all practised during this time, so also did Jafar al Sādiq who elaborated the doctrine of imāmate , the basis for the Shi'a religious thought. There was no clearly accepted formula for determining succession in the Abbasid caliphate. Two or three sons or other relatives of the dying caliph emerged as candidates to
19662-525: The general sense ( ahl as-unna al-ʿāmma ) and Sunnis in the special sense ( ahl as-sunna al-ḫāṣṣa ). Sunnis in the general sense are all Muslims who recognize the caliphate of the three caliphs ( Abū Bakr , ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān ). In his opinion, this includes all Islamic groups except the Shiite Rafidites . Sunnis in the special sense are only the "people of the hadith" ( ahl al-ḥadīṯ ). İsmail Hakkı İzmirli, who took over
19836-578: The guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama" may refer broadly to the educated class of such religious scholars, including theologians , canon lawyers ( muftis ), judges ( qadis ), professors, and high state religious officials. Alternatively, "ulama" may refer specifically to those holding governmental positions in an Islamic state . By longstanding tradition, ulama are educated in religious institutions ( madrasas ). The Quran and sunnah (authentic hadith ) are
20010-682: The holy towns of Mecca and Medina, thereby destroying monuments which they considered pagan ( shirk ). Starting with the Pan-Islamic Congress in Mecca in 1926, the pro-Saudi movement developed into one of the most relevant currents of Islamic thought. In his Egyptian exile, the Syrian alim Abd ar-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1854–1902) met al-Afghani, Abduh and Rida. In his books Ṭabāʾiʿ al-istibdād ("The nature of despotism ") and Umm al-Qurā ("Mother of villages [i.e., Mecca]", 1899) he accused
20184-421: The imperial bureaucracy, and Ottoman secular law into Islamic law. In contrast, Shah Abbas I of Persia was unable to gain similar support by the Shi'a ulama, who retained a more independent position. During the late Safavid empire, the Shi'a ulama developed into one of the warrantors of continuity in a period of instability of the central government, thus securing a relative independency which they retained during
20358-460: The influence of Sufi mysticism weakened, the Shah's role as the head of the Safaviyya lost its significance as a justification for his political role. Abbas I thus sought to associate himself with eminent ulama like Shaykh Bahāʾi (1574–1621 AD), whom he made Shaykh al-Islām in his new capital, Isfahan. Other famous ulama working under Abbas's patronage were Mir Damad (d. 1631 or 1632 AD), one of
20532-416: The intellectual circles of one region could be unknown in another. The ability of scholars from one region to support their argument in another might therefore be limited by the familiarity with the respective texts of the community they are working in. In an era without book print or mass communication media, a scholar's reputation might have remain limited if he was unfamiliar with the local canon of texts. As
20706-595: The intention of the school was to help Indian Muslims, who had become subjects of the British Empire after 1857, to lead their lives according to Islamic law. The Deobandi propagate a Sunni Islam of the Hanafi school, which was the most prevalent madhhab in South Asia. Still today, they aim at a revival of the Islamic society and education. Following the example of Deoband, thousands of madrasas were founded during
20880-434: The interior, according to Method as practiced by al-Junaid Al- Baghdadi and the "Imams of Guidance" ( aʾimma al-hudā ) who followed his path. In the 11th century, Sufism, which had previously been a less "codified" trend in Islamic piety, began to be "ordered and crystallized" into Tariqahs (orders) which have continued until the present day. All these orders were founded by a major Sunni Islamic saint , and some of
21054-444: The issuing of fatwa as well as the use of Arabic, and later also Persian as common languages of discourse constituted the religious authority of the ulama throughout the entire Islamic world. Zaman has demonstrated that, as personal contacts were key to acquiring knowledge, Islamic scholars sometimes travel far in search of knowledge (ṭalab al-ʿilm) . Due to their common training and language, any scholars travelling from one region of
21228-935: The largest and most widespread included the Qadiriyya (after Abdul-Qadir Gilani [d. 1166]), the Rifa'iyya (after Ahmed al-Rifa'i [d. 1182]), the Chishtiyya (after Moinuddin Chishti [d. 1236]), the Shadiliyya (after Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili [d. 1258]), and the Naqshbandiyya (after Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari [d. 1389]). Contrary to popular Orientalist depictions, neither the founders of these orders nor their followers considered themselves to be anything other than orthodox Sunni Muslims, Many of
21402-645: The late 19th century which adopted the Deobandi way of studying fundamental texts of Islam and commenting on Quran and Hadith. By referring back to traditional Islamic scholars, the Deobandi School aims at defending the traditional Islamic madhhab, especially the Hanafi, against criticism which arose from other Islamic schools like the Ahl-i Hadith . During the 1990s, the Afghan taliban also referred to
21576-432: The latter, with a condition inter alia, that one of the two who will outlive the other will be the caliph, and that this caliph will not appoint a successor but will leave the matter of selection of the caliph to the public. Subsequently, Hasan was poisoned to death and Muawiya enjoyed unchallenged power. Dishonouring his treaty with Hasan, he nominated his son Yazid to succeed him. Upon Muāwiya's death, Yazid asked Husain,
21750-420: The massacre of Karbalā, but Banu Umayya were able to quickly suppress them all and ruled the Muslim world, till they were finally overthrown by Banu Abbās . The rule of and "caliphate" of Banu Umayya came to an end at the hands of Banu Abbās a branch of Banu Hāshim, the tribe of Muhammad, only to usher another dynastic monarchy styled as caliphate from 750 CE. This period is seen formative in Sunni Islam as
21924-498: The methodology with regard to each school. While conflict between the schools was often violent in the past, the four Sunni schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries. There are many intellectual traditions within the field of Shari'ah ( Islamic law ), often referred to as Madh'habs (legal schools). These varied traditions reflect differing viewpoints on some laws and obligations within Islamic law. While one school may see
22098-430: The most distinguished Islamic law scholars of his territory. In his 2015 study on the "second formation of Islamic law", Burak has shown in detail how the Ottoman state gradually imposed upon the traditional ulama a hierarchy of "official imperial scholars", appointed and paid by the central government. From the conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo in 1517 onwards, the Ottoman ulama set up their own interpretation of
22272-641: The most eminent defenders of Islamic orthodoxy, such as 'Abd al-Qadir Jilani , Al-Ghazali , Sultan Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Al-Ayyubi ( Saladin ) were connected with Sufism." The Salafi and Wahhabi strands of Sunnism do not accept many mystical practices associated with the contemporary Sufi orders. Interpreting Islamic law by deriving specific rulings – such as how to pray – is commonly known as Islamic jurisprudence . The schools of law all have their own particular tradition of interpreting this jurisprudence. As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting Islamic law, there has been little change in
22446-550: The name "Victorious army of Muhammad" ( Asâkir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye ). By doing so, he was able to overcome the accusation of apostasy and secure the ulama's support. Mahmuds reforms created a new imperial elite class who spoke Western European languages and were knowledgeable of the Western European societies and their political systems. As the political and economic pressure increased on the Ottoman Empire in
22620-628: The orthodox Sunni faith. In the modern era, it has had a disproportionate impact on Islamic theology, having been appropriated by Wahhabi and other traditionalist Salafi currents and have spread well beyond the confines of the Hanbali school of law. There were also Muslim scholars who wanted to limit the Sunni term to the Ash'arites and Māturīdites alone. For example, Murtadā az-Zabīdī (d. 1790) wrote in his commentary on al-Ghazalis "Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn": "When (sc. The term)" ahl as-sunna wal jamaʿa
22794-409: The pan-islamistic concept of Islam representing a religious bond which was believed to be stronger than nationality or language. From 1876 on, Abduh edited the newspaper al-Ahrām . Since 1898, he also edited, together with Rashid Rida (1865–1935), the newspaper al-Manār ("The Beacon"), in which he further developed his ideas. al-Manār appeared in print for almost 40 years and was read throughout
22968-739: The participants of the Saqifah event appointed Abu Bakr as the next-in-line (the first caliph ). This contrasts with the Shia view , which holds that Muhammad appointed his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. The Quran , together with hadith (especially the Six Books ) and ijma (juristic consensus), form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with analogical reasoning , consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion , using
23142-588: The person of the sultan. For example, Ebussuud provided a reason why the government could own land, or could levy and increase taxes, as the government was responsible for the protection of the common good of all Muslims. Shaikh Safi-ad-Din Ardabili (1252–1334) was the founder of the Safaviyya tariqa . Safi ad-Din's great-great grandson Ismail , who from 1501 onwards ruled over the Persian Empire ,
23316-450: The point of view of Islam the introduction of modern institutions by the national state. He referred to the Islamic concept of the collective interest or common good of the Muslim community (maṣlaḥa) , to which he accorded overarching importance (al-maṣlaḥa shar) in the interest of his fellow Muslims. The concept of islāh gained special relevance for the future, as it strives at understanding and justifying all aspects of modern life from
23490-557: The principle of Ijma , a third juridical source after the Book (Quran), and the Sunnah. The Ottoman scholar Muslih ad-Din al-Qastallani (d. 1495) held the opinnion that jama means "Path of the Sahaba " ( ṭarīqat aṣ-ṣaḥāba ). The modern Indonesian theologican Nurcholish Madjid (d. 2005) interpreted jama as an inclusivistic concept: It means a society open for pluralism and dialogue but does not emphasize that much. One common mistake
23664-693: The protection of Iskandar Thani , Sultan of Aceh . Both scholars were able to move freely in an "interconnected world of fellow scholars". According to Zaman, their offices and positions as respected scholars were only questioned if they proved themselves unfamiliar with local customs (as happened to Ibn Battuta]), or met resistance from opponents with stronger local roots (ar-Raniri). Through their travels and teachings, ulama are able to transmit new knowledge and ideas over considerable distances. However, according to Zaman (2010), scholars have often been required to rely on commonly known texts which could support their fatwas . A text which might be widely known within
23838-558: The rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most tenets of the traditionalist doctrine. Although the mainly Hanbali scholars who rejected this synthesis were in the minority, their emotive, narrative-based approach to faith remained influential among the urban masses in some areas, particularly in Abbasid Baghdad . While Ash'arism and Maturidism are often called the Sunni "orthodoxy", traditionalist theology has thrived alongside it, laying rival claims to be
24012-487: The reign of subsequent dynasties. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the leaders and subjects of the Ottoman Empire became increasingly aware of its role as a great power of its time. This new self-awareness was associated with the idea to legitimise the new political role by linking the religious scholarship to the political system: Ottoman historians of the 15th and 16th century like Ibn Zunbul or Eyyûbî, described
24186-448: The religion of Islam. However, according to Hourani, al-Farabi also wrote that philosophy in its pure form was reserved for an intellectual elite, and that ordinary people should rely for guidance on the sharia . The distinction between a scholarly elite and the less educated masses "was to become a commonplace of Islamic thought". As exemplified by the works of al-Razi ( c. 865–925 AD), during later times, philosophy "was carried on as
24360-552: The religious concept of the Muslim collective interest ( maṣlaḥa ) to make his point, thereby applying the idea of ijtihad to public affairs. Positions comparable to the Western Islamic ulama were also taken in the Eastern parts of the Islamic world by Syed Ahmad Khan , the pioneering Muslim modernist in South Asia, and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani . The latter is regarded as the mentor of Pan-Islamism , but also as one of
24534-536: The righteous) remained interchangeable for a long time. Thus the Hanafite Abū l-Qāsim as-Samarqandī (d. 953), who composed a catechism for the Samanides , used sometimes one expression and sometimes another for his own group. Singular to ahl as-sunna was ṣāḥib sunna (adherent to the sunnah). This expression was used for example by ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 797) for a person, who distances himself from
24708-525: The royal family's claim at descendency from Musa al-Kadhim , the Seventh Imam, and thus to legitimise the Safavid rule. During the reign of Shah Abbas I (1571 – 1629 AD), the argument of the theocratic unity of religious and political power was no longer sufficient to legitimise the Shah's authority: Shi'a ulama renounced the monarch's claim to represent the hidden Imam by teaching that descendancy did not necessarily mean representation. Likewise, as
24882-480: The school of law. This exemplifies their purpose to establish a canon of Hanafi law within the Ottoman imperial scholarship. which modern Ottomanists termed the "Ottoman Islam". After 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) had established eight madrasas in former Byzantine church buildings, and later founded the sahn-ı şeman or "Eight courtyards madrasa", adjacent to the Fatih mosque , where he brought together
25056-429: The scriptural sources of traditional Islamic law . Students of Islamic doctrine do not seek out a specific educational institution, but rather seek to join renowned teachers. By tradition, a scholar who has completed their studies is approved by their teacher. At the teacher's individual discretion, the student is given the permission for teaching and for the issuing of legal opinions ( fatwa ) . The official approval
25230-412: The second caliph Umar had feared, as early as the regime of the third caliph Uthman, who appointed many of his kinsmen from his clan Banu Umayya , including Marwān and Walid bin Uqba on important government positions, becoming the main cause of turmoil resulting in his murder and the ensuing infighting during Ali's time and rebellion by Muāwiya , another of Uthman's kinsman. This ultimately resulted in
25404-476: The sharia had authority over the entire Ottoman population. In the 16th century, as the support by the ulama of the sultan and the central government was essential for shaping the still-growing empire, the importance of the office rose, and its power increased. As members of the Ilmiye , the imperial scholars were part of the Ottoman elite class of the Askeri , and were exempt from any taxes. However, by approving scholars and appointing them to offices, over time
25578-536: The short-term for the first time. It was later popularized by pan-Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in his treatise as-Sunna wa-š-šiʿa au al-Wahhābīya wa-r-Rāfiḍa: Ḥaqāʾiq dīnīya taʾrīḫīya iǧtimaʿīya iṣlaḥīya ("The Sunna and the Shia, Or Wahhabism and Rāfidism : Religious history, sociological und reform oriented facts") published in 1928–29. The term "Sunnah" is usually used in Arabic discourse as designation for Sunni Muslims, when they are intended to be contrasted with Shias. The word pair "Sunnah-Shia"
25752-466: The sultan's influence increased over the religious scholars, although, as a Muslim, he still stood under the Islamic law. Even the Shaykh al-Islām was subordinate to the sultan; his position, like the ranks of the muftis, was described as a "service" ( Turkish : hizmet ) or "rank" ( Turkish : rütbe or paye-ı Sahn ), to which a candidate was appointed or elevated. Sometimes, the sultans made use of their power: In 1633, Murad IV gave order to execute
25926-423: The support of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din . He followed this with a speech contrasting the Christian and Muslim approaches to religious law, arguing that Islam was better equipped than Christianity to handle the post-World War world. Pickthall, who now identified himself as a " Sunni Muslim of the Hanafi school", was active as "a natural leader" within a number of Islamic organizations. He preached Friday sermons in both
26100-598: The teachings of Shia, Kharijites , Qadarites and Murjites . In addition, the Nisba adjective sunnī was also used for the individual person. Thus it has been recorded, the Kufic scholar of the Quran Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh (d. 809) was asked, how he was a "sunni". He responded the following: "The one who, when the heresies are mentioned, doesn't get excited about any of them." The Andalusiaian scholar Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) taught later, that whose who confess to Islam can be divided into four groups: ahl as-sunna , Mutazilites , Murjites, Shites, Kharijites. The Muʿtazilites replaced
26274-506: The term as a contrast from their enemies among them Hanafites in the West, who have been followers of the Mutazilites. Al-Bazdawī also contrasted the Ahl as-Sunnah wa l-Jamāʻah with Ahl al-Ḥadīth , "because they would adhere to teachings contrary to the Quran". According to Schams ad-Dīn al-Maqdisī (end of the 10th century) was the expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah a laudatory term during his time, similar to ahl al-ʿadl wa-t-tawḥīd ("people of Righteousness and Divine Unity"), which
26448-445: The throne, each supported by his own party of supporters. A trial of strength ensued and the most powerful party won and expected favours of the caliph they supported once he ascended the throne. The caliphate of this dynasty ended with the death of the Caliph al-Ma'mun in 833 CE, when the period of Turkish domination began. The fall, at the end of World War I of the Ottoman Empire , the biggest Sunni empire for six centuries, brought
26622-430: The time of the Persian Ilkhanate (1260–1335 AD) and the Timurid dynasty (1370–1507 AD) onwards, madrasas have often become part of an architectural complex which also includes a mosque, a Sufi ṭarīqa , and other buildings of socio-cultural function, like baths or a hospital . Madrasas are considered sacred places of learning. They may provide boarding and salaries to a limited number of teachers, and boarding for
26796-485: The traditional education of an alim, his interest focused on modern French concepts of administration and economy. He only referred to Islam in order to emphasize that Muslims can adopt practical knowledge and insights from Europe. As such, lt-Tahtawi's report reflects the political efforts of Muhammad Ali Pasha, who did not intend to reform al-Azhar university, but aimed at building an independent educational system sponsored by his government. Hayreddin Pasha (1822/3–1890)
26970-426: The traditions of the Sunni Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal . The expediencies of Cold War resulted in the radicalisation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who fought the communist regime backed by USSR forces in Afghanistan giving birth to the Taliban movement . After the fall of communist regime in Afghanistan and the ensuing civil war , Taliban wrestled power from the various Mujahidin factions in Afghanistan and formed
27144-408: The two opponent early modern Islamic empires, both relied on ulama in order to legitimise their power. In both empires, ulama patronised by the royal courts created "official" religious doctrines which supported the dynastic rule. At the high points of their political power, respectively, the development took different paths: The Ottoman Sultan Süleyman I successfully integrated the imperial ulama into
27318-403: The ulama were regarded as the guardians of Islamic law and prevented the Caliph from dictating legal results, with the ruler and ulama forming a sort of "separation of powers" in government. Laws were decided based on the Ijma (consensus) of the Ummah (community), which was most often represented by the legal scholars. The Sunni Ottoman, and the Shi'a Safavid Persian dynasties, rulers of
27492-513: The ulama's support in an attempt to strengthen their authority. Particularly, they associated themselves with a group of ulama who supported the "official" Twelver Shi'a doctrine, established by the Iranian Shaykh al-Islām Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi (1627–1699) during the later decades of Safavid rule. The dispute between the Twelver Shi'a and Mir Damad 's (d. 1631 or 1632) and Mulla Sadra 's (c. 1571/2 – 1640) School of Isfahan , who promoted Sufi mysticism and Islamic philosophy , continued throughout
27666-407: The ulama. The Shiite scholars retained their political influence on the Persian society. They also maintained unrestricted access to the financial resources from the religious endowments. In addition, the Islamic Zakat tax was paid to individual imams and not to state-sponsored tax collectors. Both their religious influence and their financial means allowed the Shiite ulama to act, at times, against
27840-401: The use of sharia led to changes in local customs. ʿIlm al-Kalām , the "science of discourse", also termed "Islamic theology", serves to explain and defend the doctrine of the Quran and Hadith. The concept of kalām was introduced during the first Islamic centuries by the Muʿtazila school. One of the most prominent scholars of the Muʿtazila was Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad (935–1025 AD). From
28014-521: The wake of the Ash'arite synthesis between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, its original form survived among a minority of mostly Hanbalite scholars. While Ash'arism and Maturidism are often called the Sunni "orthodoxy", traditionalist theology has thrived alongside it, laying rival claims to be the orthodox Sunni faith. Islamic theology experienced further developments among Shia theologians . The study of, and commentaries on Quran and hadith, debates about ijtihad and taqlid and
28188-408: The war, Pickthall developed a reputation as "a rabid Turkophile ", consequently denying him a position with the Arab Bureau . The role was instead given to T. E. Lawrence . In June 1917, Pickthall gave a speech defending the rights of Palestinian Arabs, in the context of the debate over the Balfour Declaration . In November 1917, Pickthall publicly took shahada at the Woking Muslim Mission with
28362-435: The weakness of the central authority was the Shi'a ulama. According to Garthwaite (2010), "the ulama constituted one institution that not only provided continuity, but gradually asserted its role over and against royal authority." A process of change began which continued throughout the 19th century and into the present. Already some of the last Safavids, Sulayman Shah (r. 1666–1694) and Tahmasp II (r. 1722–1732) had sought
28536-418: The works of Muhammad ash-Shawkani, whose writings did also influence the doctrine of the Salafi movement in the Arab Middle East and worldwide. Sunni Others In terms of Ihsan : Sunni Islam ( / ˈ s uː n i / ; Arabic : أهل السنة , romanized : Ahl as-Sunnah , lit. 'The People of the Sunnah') is the largest branch of Islam , followed by 85–90% of
28710-460: The world's Muslims , and simultaneously the largest religious denomination in the world. Its name comes from the word Sunnah , referring to the tradition of Muhammad . The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad and subsequently acquired broader political significance, as well as theological and juridical dimensions. According to Sunni traditions, Muhammad left no successor and
28884-402: The younger brother of Hasan, Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson, to give his allegiance to Yazid, which he plainly refused. His caravan was cordoned by Yazid's army at Karbalā and he was killed with all his male companions – total 72 people, in a day long battle after which Yazid established himself as a sovereign, though strong public uprising erupted after his death against his dynasty to avenge
29058-442: Was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence , H. G. Wells , and E. M. Forster , as well as journalists, political and religious leaders . He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on 'Islam and Progress' on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill , West London. Marmaduke William Pickthall was born in Cambridge Terrace , near Regent's Park in London, on 7 April 1875,
29232-425: Was amongst the first members of the ulama who travelled to Europe. As a religious counsellor to a delegation by the Egyptian khedive Muhammad Ali Pasha he stayed in Paris from 1826 to 1831. His report "The Extraction of Gold or an Overview of Paris" ( Taḫlīṣ al-ibrīz fī talḫīṣ Bārīz ) (1849) included some outlines of future reforms and potential improvements in his native country. Although al-Tahtawi had gone through
29406-418: Was an Ottoman Tunisian alim and statesman who reformed the administration and jurisdiction of the province. He was able to explain his ideas in French ( Réformes nécessaires aux États musulmans – Necessary reforms of the Muslim states. Paris, 1868), which he had learned whilst representing his sovereign Ahmad Bey at the court of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1855. In contrast to al-Tahtawi, Hayreddin Pasha used
29580-408: Was effectively criticised by al-Ghazali , one of the most influential scholars of Islam. In his works Tahāfut al-Falāsifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), Mizan al-'amal (Criterion of Action) and Kimiya-yi sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness), he refuted the Philosophy of Ibn Sīnā , and demonstrated that the Aristotelian ethics is incompatible with Islamic ethics: The latter is based on
29754-430: Was the founder of the Safavid dynasty . Shah Ismail I proclaimed the Twelver Shi'a as the new Persian state religion. To propagate the Safavid faith , he invited ulama from Qom , Jabal 'Āmil in southern Lebanon and Syria to travel around Iran and promote the Shi'a doctrine. In 1533, Shah Tahmasp I commissioned a new edition of the Safvat as-safa , Shaikh Ṣāfī's genealogy. It was rewritten in order to support
29928-411: Was the major tradition in Central Asia based on Hanafi -law. It is more influenced by Persian interpretations of Islam and less on the traditions established within Arabian culture. In contrast to the traditionalistic approach, Maturidism allows to reject hadiths based on reason alone. Nevertheless, revelation remains important to inform humans about that is beyond their intellectual limits, such as
30102-400: Was the widow of William Hale and the daughter of Admiral Donat Henchy O'Brien , who served in the Napoleonic Wars . Pickthall spent the first few years of his life in the countryside, living with several older half-siblings and a younger brother in his father's rectory in rural Suffolk. He was a sickly child. When about six months old, he fell very ill of measles complicated by bronchitis. On
30276-475: Was used for Mutazilites or generally designations like Mu'minūn ("Believer") or aṣḥāb al-hudā ("people of guidance") for Muslims, who has been seen as rightoues believers. Since the expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah was used with a demand on rightoues belief, it was used in academic researches translated as "orthodox". There are different opinions regarding what the term jama in the phrase ahl as-sunna wa l-jama actually means, among Muslim scholars. In
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