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1 the Evolution of Meaning of the Qur'ānic Word “Khalīfa”

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1 the Evolution of Meaning of the Qur'ānic Word “Khalīfa” 1 The Evolution of Meaning of the Qur’ānic Word “Khalīfa” Introduction The Qur’ānic word khalīfa has evolved in meaning from the time of Qur’ānic revelation to modern day. The earliest Qur’ānic exegetes seem to have understood this word as succession of previous generations. However, with the rise of the Umayyad caliphate thirty years after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad, the word began to acquire new connotations. Umayyad caliphs and their supporters often used the phrase Khalīfat Allāh (God’s deputy), perhaps to imply that God appointed the caliph. However, the word gradually became understood as “representative of God.” This notion that humans represent God has persisted until the present day. In addition to the vicegerency meaning, the word has also come to connote the position of “steward of the earth” and hence acquired a further ecological dimension. In this paper, I will argue that both renderings of the Qur’ānic word “khalīfa” as “God’s vicegerent” and “steward” are lexically inaccurate and theologically problematic. This will be accomplished by introducing the controversy surrounding the Qur'ānic notion of “khalīfa.” A chronological development of this word through an investigation of the lexical treatment of the word “khalīfa” in Arabic and Arabic-English dictionaries, encyclopedias, Qur’ānic exegesis, and other scholarly works. I will also be arguing that the meaning of “succession” seems to be the soundest interpretation of the term “khalīfa” because the “vicegerent” rendering may contradict the Qur’ānic emphasis on God’s oneness (tawḥīd), whereas the “stewardship” rendering is a modern-day interpretation, not understood at the time of Qur’ānic revelation. 2 Qur’ānic Translations The term “khalīfa” appears in 2/al-Baqara: 30 and 38/Ṣād: 26. In 2/al-Baqara: 30, God in the Qur’ān says to the angels, “Behold, I am about to establish a khalīfa on earth.” They reply, “Will You place on it such as will spread corruption thereon and shed blood – whereas it is we who extol Your limitless glory, and praise You, and hallow Your name?” [God] answered: “Verily, I know that which you do not know.” In 38/Ṣād: 26, the addressee is David whereby God says, “We have made you a khalīfa on earth: judge, then, between men with justice, and do not follow vain desire.”1 In order to demonstrate the omnipresent definition of this term as “God’s vicegerent,” a sampling of eight popular modern Qur’ānic Arabic-English translations demonstrates how frequently the term is defined as “God’s vicegerent”; five translators render the word “khalīfa” as “vicegerent” or “viceroy” whereas the remaining three render it as 1) “successor,” 2) “one who shall inherit the earth,” and 3) “(mankind) generations after generations on earth.”2 In other words, “vicegerent” or “viceroy” may be common terms for the word “khalīfa” but are not exclusive. A “vicegerent” is an administrative deputy, a king or magistrate. Likewise, a “viceroy” is the governor of a country or province who rules as the representative of a king or sovereign. Another definition is “a person regarded as an earthly representative of God or a god, especially 1 Unless otherwise stated, all translations of the Qur’ān are from Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān (Dubai: Oriental Press, 2003), 15, 786 (with some modification). 2 For those who translate khalīfa as “God’s vicegerent,” see Muhammad Pickthall, The Glorious Qur’ān: Arabic Text and English Rendering (Beltsville, Maryland: Amana Publications, 1996); Muhammad Muḥsin Khan, The Noble Qur’ān: English Translation of the Meaning and Commentary (Madinah, K.S.A.: King Fahd Complex for the printing of the Holy Qur’ān, 1999); Syed Abū al-꜂Alā꜆Mawdūdī, Towards Understanding the Qur’ān trans. Zafar Ishaq Ansarī (Delhi: Islamic Foundation, 2007); Sayyid Quṭb, In the Shade of the Qur’ān trans. M.A. Salahi and A. Shamis, (Markfield, Leicester, and Nairobi, Kenya: The Islamic Foundation, 1999); and, Abdullah Yusuf ꜂Ali, The Holy Qur’ān: Text, Translation & Commentary (New York: Tahrike Tarsil Qur’ān, Inc, 2001); For those who translate khalīfa as “successor/inheritor” see, M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’ān (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān (Dubai: Oriental Press, 2003), and A.J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted: A Translation (New York: Collier Books, 1986). 3 the pope.”3 David Johnston points out that the five translations of the word “khalīfa” as “vicegerent” denote “the loftiness of the position” despite the angels’ remark that this “khalīfa” will shed blood and spread corruption.”4 Indeed, there is an apparent contradiction in such an understanding of the vicegerency of humans, for if a vicegerent is to represent God, they must act god-like. Yet, bloodshed and corruption are far from godly attributes, for “God does not like corruption” (wal-lāhu lā yuḥibbul-fasād) 5. Rather, God rebukes and distances Himself from these qualities. His condemnation of wrongdoing occurs in 10/Yūnus: 23 as “committing injustice upon the earth without right,” and in 30/Al-Rūm: 41 as “corruption (fasād) has appeared on both land and sea as a result of peoples’ actions.” God indicts humans for these misdeeds and is not associated with such enormities. Furthermore, although the Qur’ānic David is ordered to judge with truth in 38/Ṣād: 26, God “alone judges and none repels His judgment.”6 Finally, perhaps the simplest and clearest evidence against defining the word “khalīfa” as “God’s vicegerent” is that God is one, the unique sovereign of the heavens and the earth and the only ruler “who has no associate (sharīk) in the sovereignty” nor shares His power with anyone.7 Since God is almighty, all-knowing and self-sufficient, the belief that any being or power could have a “helping” share in His divinity would cause humans to go astray. Due to the Qur’ānic criticism of humans who commit injustice through bloodshed and corruption in addition to its insistence on monotheism, it would seem that the three Qur’ānic translators opted for an alternative to the more common “vicegerency” rendering. Instead, they assert that the basic meaning of khalīfa in 2/al-Baqara: 30 and 38/Ṣād: 26 is derived from the 3 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., s.v. “vicegerent” and “viceroy.” 4 David Johnston, Earth, Empire and Sacred Text: Muslims and Christians as Trustees of Creation (United Kingdom: Equinox Publishing. Ltd, 2010), 240. 5 2/al-Baqara: 205. 6 13/Ar-Ra꜂d: 41. 7 Cf. 17/Al-꜆Isrāa꜆: 111 and 25/al-Furqān: 2. 4 Arabic root “kh-l-f,” meaning to succeed each other. This is corroborated by the previously mentioned Qur’ānic verses that acknowledge human disobedience to God. God simply finds more obedient people to succeed the disobedient. The phrase, “inheritors of the earth” (khalā꜆if al-arḍ), occurs in several verses in order to show that communities change, and are replaced by new ones. A similar word, “generations” (qarn, pl. qurūn), is used to “refer to groups of people who had been destroyed by God for their disobedience and failure to heed his message.”8 For example, qurūn is used in 10/Yūnus: 13, illustrating the destruction of previous generations who committed evil. The next verse asserts that God made humans successors on earth in order to see how they would act, (linanẓura kāyfa ta꜂lamūn). The destruction of previous generations is meant to warn the present generation not to emulate their predecessors’ self-destructive and wicked ways (6/Al-꜆An꜂ām: 6). Besides, the Qur’ān asserts time and again that humankind often fails to heed God’s guidance to live a righteous way of life: “The use of the category of generations in the Qurʾān is part of the larger Qurʾānic argument that all of history can serve as a lesson for humankind, part of the total number of signs and portents God has sent down.”9 Furthermore, the angels had already witnessed the destruction and bloodshed of previous creatures, the jinn, so the angels’ alarmed response to the creation of this “khalīfa” seems logical.10 According to Islamic theology, angels are perfectly obedient creatures who worship God, unlike humans endowed with free will, who can worship God or not.11 The angels’ 8 Gordon Darnell Newby, “Generations,” in Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, 5 vols., gen. ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden: Brill, 2001 - 2006), 2: 293. Henceforth, this work will be referenced as follows: EQ. 9 Ibid., 2: 293. 10 See 15/Al-Ḥijr: 27: “And the jinn We created before from scorching fire.” Notice the use of before to denote previous inhabitants. The majority of medieval Muslim scholars such as ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) and ibn Jarīr al Tabarī (d. 310/923) wrote about the angels witnessing the jinn as corrupt and prone to bloodshed in their Qur’anic commentaries. 11 “Satan (Iblīs) was [sic] ordered to prostrate himself to Adam and is viewed by some Muslim scholars as an angel, but more generally it is believed that he belonged to the jinn species.” Cf. Sarra Tlili, Animals in the Qur’an (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), (see note 3), 222. 5 incredulous response to the creation of this khalīfa, a being they believed was inclined to corruption and bloodshed, further weakens the theologically flawed interpretation of the human as God’s vicegerent. Despite this evidence that describes the word “khalīfa” as “successor” or “substitute,” many modern Qur’ānic translations define the word “khalīfa” as “God’s vicegerent,” even though some of the earliest Muslims defined it as “successor” or “inheritor”, as will be illustrated in this paper.
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