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Between God and Society Divine Speech and Norm-Construction in Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence

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Between God and Society Divine Speech and Norm-Construction in Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence Between God and Society Divine Speech and Norm-Construction in Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence Omar Farahat Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Omar Farahat All rights reserved Abstract Between God and Society Divine Speech and Norm-Construction in Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence Omar Farahat The role of divine Revelation in the process of construction of normative judgments has long occupied scholars of religion in general, and Islam in particular. In the area of Islamic studies, numerous works were dedicated to the elucidation of various trends of thought on the question of the methods of formulation of norms and values. Many of those studies suppose a distinction between textualist and rationalist theories, and use this framework to explain the most influential Muslim views on this issue. In contemporary philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion, theorists of religious meta-ethics draw upon the medieval and early modern Christian debates almost exclusively. Reconstructing the philosophical foundations of classical Islamic models of norm-construction, which arise within both theological and jurisprudential works, has not received sufficient attention in either discipline. In this study, I explore eleventh century debates on the place of divine Revelation in the formulation of normative judgments in Islamic theology and jurisprudence, and bring this analysis in dialogue with current questions in philosophical theology. By reconstructing the epistemological, metaphysical and semantic foundations of those debates, I show that two general trends emerge on the question of the depth with which Revelation interferes in human moral reasoning, which generally correspond to recent debates between natural reason and divine command theorists in contemporary philosophical theology. I argue that those tensions were the result of a number of philosophical disagreements, not mere reflections of a commitment to “rationalism” or “textualism.” This study is based on an analysis of texts attributed to prominent eleventh century jurist- theologians, including Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d.1013), Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (d. 1085), al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 1024) and Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Bāṣrī (d. 1044). I maintain that abstract normative considerations animating those theories are of trans-historical philosophical value, and can be “appropriated” to provide new insights when introduced into current debates in religious ethics. Whereas, following post-colonial studies that held the inadequacy of treating non- Western thought through the lens of modern Western theories, many recent works emphasized the historicity of Islamic thought, I consider the abstract claims in both Islamic and modern thought in order to generate a philosophical dialogue across traditions. In conclusion, I argue that disagreements between prominent eleventh century Muslim jurist- theologians on the place of Revelation in the formulation of normative judgments is best understood as part of broader debates on theology, metaphysics and epistemology. To do that, we must treat theology and jurisprudence as an integrated meta-ethical project that inserts itself between the text of Revelation and the process of norm-production. Reconstructing those theories of divine speech and command shows us that the Muʿtazilīs combined a naturalist view of ethics with a dualistic metaphysic to hold that Revelation is a sufficient but not necessary condition for moral knowledge. Ashʿarīs, by contrast, insisted on the indispensability of Revelation on the basis of a combination of epistemological skepticism with a metaphysic that prioritized skeptical theism. Table of Contents: Acknowledgements iii Introduction: Islamic Thought and the Possibility of Divine Command Theories 1 (1) Uṣūl al-Dīn/ Uṣūl al-Fiqh as Theological Ethics: Post-Structuralism and the 5 Philosophical “Appropriation” of Islamic Traditions (2) Kalām and Uṣūl al-Fiqh as a Unified Project in Theoretical Ethics 19 (3) Divine Speech and Normative Judgments: The Problem of Moral 23 Universalizability Chapter I: Is Revelation Necessary? The Moral Epistemology of Divine Speech 31 (1) Were the Muʿtazilīs “Rationalists”? 35 (2) Moral Skepticism and the Case for Revelation 39 (3) The Epistemological Foundations of the Moral Status of Revelation 48 (4) Revelation-Independent Reasoning and the Construction of Judgments 68 (5) The Function of Revelation in the Process of Norm-Construction 86 Chapter II: The Metaphysics of Divine Speech 102 (1) God in Relation to the World: The Creator-Created Dichotomy 109 (2) God and His Attributes 127 (3) The Conception of Divine Speech: Action or Inner Representation? 142 i Chapter III: The Nature of Divine Commands and the Problem of Autonomy 166 (1) Are Divine Command Ethics Inherently Contrary to Moral Autonomy? 172 (2) Commands as Human-Like Expressions of the Will 180 (3) The Ashʿarī Conception of Commands as Divine Attributes 198 (4) Theology-Averse Approaches to Divine Commands 216 Chapter IV: The Normative Implications of the Imperative Mood 227 (1) Why the Imperative Mood? Uṣūl al-fiqh and Practical Reasoning 232 (2) Dialectical Moral Deliberation: Community as the Site of Production of Norms 238 (3) Faithfulness to Transcendent Ethics: Arguments for the Suspension of Judgment 249 (4) Meaning as the Jurists’ Domain: Arguments for the Presumption of Obligation 279 Conclusion 305 Bibliography 309 ii Acknowledgements: I was very fortunate to receive the generous support of many mentors, colleagues, and friends, without whom this project could not have been completed. My gratitude to Professor Wael Hallaq extends beyond the extensive guidance he offered to me in the dissertation-writing process. I owe much of what I know about the production of sincere and responsible scholarship to Professor Hallaq’s incredibly supportive and yet uncompromising mentorship. His advice and example have shaped not only this dissertation but everything I will write for the rest of my career. From my first days as a Ph.D. student at Columbia’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS), I was fortunate to receive the kind support of Professor Sudipta Kaviraj. I am grateful to Professor Kaviraj for the many hours he spent reading and commenting upon my work and for generously sharing his thoughts on many of our common areas of interest. Professor Brinkley Messick’s insightful comments and advice have pushed me to think and write with more clarity and to reflect upon questions and concepts related to my work that I would not have otherwise considered. I thank him for this and for his interest in my intellectual and professional development. Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s teaching, writings and guidance triggered my interest in the philosophical study of classical Islamic disciplines at an early stage of my graduate studies, and I thank him for his continued support. Professor Kevin Reinhart’s very detailed and penetrating comments and criticisms of my work have had a profound impact on this dissertation and many of my writings that are currently in progress. I feel fortunate to have him as a mentor. My path towards completing this study and the shaping of my areas of interest were defined by my encounters with many exceptional scholars. A course on Eastern philosophy with Dr. Michael Puett at Harvard in spring 2007 was a turning point that eventually led to my career shift iii to academia. I thank him for the inspiration and his support following my graduation. I also wish to thank my professors at NYU without whom my quest to begin my doctoral studies would not have been successful. I especially wish to acknowledge Dr. Marion Katz to whom I owe my passion for Islamic legal theories, and Professors Peter Chelkowski, Maurice Pomerantz, Robert Dimit, Evelyn Vitz and Arzu Öztürkmen for their kind mentorship during my Master’s studies. Dr. Khaled Fahmy has always been and continues to be ready and willing to offer his insights on all academic and professional issues that I wished to discuss and I thank him profusely for that. My many exchanges with Dr. John Hare of Yale Divinity School were integral to my reflections on divine command and natural law theories and his comparative work informed many of this dissertation’s ideas. This project would not have been completed without the numerous opportunities and dedicated assistance of the MESAAS faculty and staff. I am grateful for the many challenging and enlightening discussions we have had at the MESAAS dissertation colloquium, and thank Professors Timothy Mitchell and Sheldon Pollock for their competent leadership. My colleagues at MESAAS were an important part of my intellectual growth over the past five years. I especially wish to thank Nasser Abourahme, Veli Yashin, Yitzhak Lewis, and Aditi Surie von Czechowski for their excellent comments on my work and for the many stimulating discussions. Andrew Ollett’s expertise in Indian philosophy and our comparative conversations have been particularly enlightening. I am grateful to our Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Allison Busch, and our Director of Academic Administration and Finance, Jessica Rechtschaffer, for making the Ph.D. process as smooth and painless as possible. The journey that led to the completion of this dissertation was made possible thanks to the companionship of many exceptionally kind and brilliant individuals. Dominic Longo has been a iv spectacular friend and now colleague from the first moments I decided to embark upon this journey. I also wish to thank Sarah El-Kazaz, Ossama Soliman, Omar Cheta, Ahmed Ragab, Sonia Farid, and Aina Begim for being wonderful friends and colleagues over the years. Wendell Marsh, Sarah Hawas, Khalil Abdul Rashid, Najla Abdurrahman, Loumia Ferhat, Ibrahim El Houdaiby, Ahmed Diaa, Nadia Sariahmed, Raissa von Doetinchem and Aseel Najeeb have all been exemplary colleagues who contributed through their many intelligent insights to the shaping and refining of my project and thought in general. I thank especially Ibrahim El Houdaiby for his careful reading of the final draft of this dissertation.
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