doi: https://doi.org/10.15359/siwo.2018(1).2 Recibido: 7 de febrero de 2017 Aprobado: 10 de abril de 2017 [p. 25 – p. 43]

FITNA

Mohamed A. Mohamed

Abstract In order to articulate the Qurʾānic concept of fitna I divided this article into three parts. In the first part, I discuss the etymology, meanings, and use offitna in the Qurʾān. I argue that though fitna indicates deception, seduction, anarchy and tur- moil, it is considered normative; it is the nature of this world. The essence of fitna is a merging of truth and falsehood that renders signs seductive and removes truth from the field of reason. Meaning is neither true nor false, absent nor present; it is incom- plete since it partially operates within the sphere of ghayb, or the invisible reality. In the second part, I explore fitna as a sociological analytical concept by situating it within Western sociological theory. I contrast fitna to related concepts in the works of Sigmund Freud, Georges Bataille, Jean Baudrillard and Timothy Bewes. Exploring the work of Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328 CE) in his treatise on truth and metaphor, and comparing it to the work of Bernard McGinn, I argue that in articulating meaning and truth, fitna avoids both dialectic synthesis and cosmic dualism by proposing a partial overlap between ẓāhir and ghayb, or the visible and the invisible worlds. In the third part, I study two applied aspects of fitna: in legal reasoning, and the theology of apocalypse. I explain how a worldview of fitna featured a formal notion of truth that is legal, rather than ontic and objective, and is grounded in ghālib al-ẓann, or the predo- minant probability. I then connect the apocalyptic turmoil to an increasing overlap between ghayb and ẓāhir, which escalates to their identification, but this comes with the end of fitna and the end of this world.

Keywords: Fitna; ghayb; Islam; truth; interpretation; apocalypse; probability; seduction.

Resumen Para expresar el concepto coránico de la fitna, este artículo se divide en tres partes. En la primera parte, se discuten la etimología, los significados y el uso del término fitna en el Qurʾān. Se argumenta que, aunque la palabra fitna indique decepción, seducción, anarquía y caos, al mismo tiempo se considera normativa, como el esta- do natural del mundo. La esencia de la fitnaes una amalgama de verdad y mentira, la cual hace que los signos se vuelvan seductores y que se elimine el concepto de la verdad del campo de la razón. El significado no es ni verdadero ni falso, no está ni ausente ni presente: es incompleto, pues opera desde la esfera del ghayb, o la rea- lidad invisible. En la segunda parte, se explora la fitna como concepto sociológico analítico, situándolo dentro de la teoría sociológica occidental. Se contrasta la fitna con conceptos relacionados en la obra de Sigmund Freud, Georges Bataille, Jean Baudrillard y Timothy Bewes. A través de una exploración del pensamiento de Ibn

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Taymiyya (1263-1328 CE) en su tratado sobre la verdad y la metáfora, y compa- rándolo con el de Bernard McGinn, se argumenta que, al articular el sentido y la verdad, el concepto de la fitna evita tanto la síntesis dialéctica como el dualismo cósmico, proponiendo en cambio una superposición parcial entre el ẓāhir y el ghayb, o los mundos visibles e invisibles. En la tercera parte, se estudian dos aspectos aplicados de la fitna: en el razonamiento legal y en la teología del apocalipsis. Se explica cómo una cosmovisión de la fitna incluye una noción formal de la verdad que es legal en vez de óntica y objetiva, y anclada en ghālib al-ẓann, o la probabili- dad predominante. Finalmente, se conecta el caos apocalíptico al incremento en la superposición entre el ghayb y el ẓāhir, lo cual llega a abarcar hasta su posible iden- tificación, pero esto último solamente llega con el fin de la fitnay el fin del mundo.

Palabras clave: Fitna; ghayb; Islam; verdad; interpretación; apocalipsis; probabili- dad; seducción.

When that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than others, because Allah is on both sides Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

In this article, I will explore the them from other less valuable met- concept of fitnaas articulated in the Ar- als or impurities. Likewise, human abic language and Islamic tradition. I hearts are assumed to have both truth will start with a discussion of its etymol- and falsehood. The severe trials and ogy, meanings, and use in the Qurʾān. I tribulations that humans go through will follow this discussion with a num- purify their hearts of falsehood and ber of theoretical reflections that aim to make them stronger in faith and obe- explore fitna as a sociological analytical dience. In sūra 22, āya 11, the Qurʾān concept and situate it within Western comments on this mixture of truth sociological theory. Finally, I will study and falsehood in the hearts of believ- two applied aspects of fitna: in legal rea- ers, which requires testing, by saying, soning, and the theology of apocalypse. “There are also some who serve God with unsteady faith: if something good I. Etymology comes their way, they are satisfied, Fitna, literally temptation or se- but if they are tested, they revert to duction, seems to have two overlap- their old ways, losing both this world ping meanings. First, it means a se- and the next—that is the clearest 1 vere trial. The fitna of gold and silver loss.” The translator, M.A.S Abdel is to place these two precious metals 1 M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an (Oxford: in fire to purify them by separating Oxford University Press, 2008), 210.

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Haleem, used “if they are tested” to down to you.”4 In sūra 22, āya 53, the translate “in aṣābat-hum fitna,” which Qurʾān states that fitna is the work of literally means “if they are stricken by Devil. It says, “He makes Satan’s in- fitna.” In sūra 24, āya 63, the Qurʾān sinuations a temptation (fitna) only implies that people bring this test for the sick at heart and those whose upon themselves by committing sins. hearts are hardened—the evildoers are It says, “and those who go against His profoundly opposed [to the Truth].”5 order should beware lest a trial afflict What seems to me to be of utmost them (an tuṣībahum fitna) or they receive a painful punishment.”2 In importance here is that fitna is not considered an exceptional situation, sūra 29, āya 2, however, it seems that though committing sins invites fitna, an aberration from the norm. It is not as a severe test, all claimers of faith even portrayed even as an illness, as an are going to be tested anyway. It says, unfortunate event that is expected to “Do people think they will be left occur a number of times in everyone’s alone after saying ‘We believe’ with- life. Fitna, to a certain degree, is actu- ally considered to be normative. The out being put to the test (yuftanūn)?”3 overlapping of truth and falsehood is Fitna, nevertheless, has a second part of the very nature of this world, meaning; it is not the test that puri- and, in fact the Qurʾān expands fitna fies truth of falsehood, but rather, the to include all of the bad and the good act of taking what is false for what is of human existence. In sūra 21, āya 35, true, mixing them together and mak- it says, “We test you all through the ing them indistinguishable from each bad and the good.”6 Furthermore, in other. Here, fitna comes as deception, sūra 8, āya 28, the Qurʾān states, “Be or misguidance. Both the Devil and aware that your possessions and your the magician are called fattān. The children are only a test (fitna).”7 Even goldsmith too is called fattān since though the translator had to choose his work requires mixing together dif- one of the two aforementioned mean- ferent metals. The Qurʾān warns the ings of fitna, the verse could be read in Prophet about fitna, deception by the both senses, for possessions and chil- unbelievers. In sūra 5, āya 49, it says, dren can lead to either truth or false- “Do not follow their whims, and take hood, and they can test the heart, or good care that they do not tempt you even seduce it. The mix of truth and away from any of what God has sent falsehood, fitna, is thus the nature of

4 Ibid., 72–73. 5 Ibid., 211. 2 Ibid., 226. 6 Ibid., 205. 3 Ibid., 252. 7 Ibid., 112.

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this world. In fact, the Qurʾān admits and plots against him. Stand fast, that the prohibited wine and gambling for only those who stand fast sur- 12 still include benefits to people. In vive these fitan(plural of fitnah.) sūra 2, āya 219, it says, “They ask you This world, therefore, is a world 8 [Prophet] about intoxicants and gam- of differences, differences that create bling: say, ‘There is great sin in both, and maintain fitna. Fitna, however, and some benefit for people: the sin is does not work by generating mean- 9 greater than the benefit.’” ing through the interplay of opposite This ambiguity of truth and its signs. Wealth and poverty, health and mixture with falsehood spreads differ- sickness, or knowledge and ignorance ences, and sometimes causes disputes are signs that refer to realities and among peoples. In sūra 6, āya 53, the meanings of this world. None of these Qurʾān says, “We have made some of signs, however, exclusively refers to the them a test for others, to make the dis- reality of faith. Both wealth and pov- believers say, ‘Is it these men that God erty could be a sign of either good or has favoured among us?’ Does God not bad faith, for wealth could be either a know best who are the grateful ones?”10 blessing or a trial. Poverty, too, could In sūra 25, āya 20, a similar meaning is be a blessing, in which God protects implied, as the Qurʾān says, “But We the heart of the believer from worldly have made some of you a means of distractions, or a test. Of course, people testing others—will you stand fast?”11 try to reveal the true meaning of these In Tafsīr al-Manār, the Egyptian schol- signs: for instance, what does God re- ar Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849­–1905) ally mean by making me different than explained the meaning of these verses the other person? They may also use by stating, other signs, such as the manifestations or practices of faith, but those acts can, It means that We (God) made each in turn, become either demonstrations one of you a test for the other, by of proper faith, or of hypocrisy and ar- being different than the other in rogance. It is not that signs have no terms of wealth or poverty, power or weakness, health or sickness, meaning. There is indeed a true mean- knowledge or ignorance, etc. ing reflected in these signs. However, One of you despises the other and this meaning communicates with an oppresses him; the other envies him invisible reality, ghayb, and therefore remains incomplete. 8 Though the choice of the translator is intoxicants, the word in the Qurʾān is khamr—that is wine. 9 Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, 24. 10 Ibid., 83. 12 Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Ḥakīm 11 Ibid., 228. (Cairo: Dār al-Manār, 1948), vol. 7, 445.

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The Qurʾān moves this world of In fact, the Qurʾān admits that its differences into a surprising new lev- signs, the holy words of the Qurʾān it- el. In sūra 49, āya 9, the Qurʾān says, self, cannot be a last refuge of truth. In “If two groups of the believers fight, sūra 3, āya 7 to 9, it says, you [believers] should try to reconcile 13 …it is He who has sent this Scrip- them.” In this world of differences, ture down to you [Prophet]. Some where truth is always an uncertain of its verses are definite in meaning possibility, where seductive signs con- (muḥkamāt)—these are the cor- stantly spread fitna, a fight between nerstones of the Scripture (umm two groups among the believers is al-Kitāb, or the mother of the not unexpected. In lexicographer Ibn Book)—and others are ambiguous (mutash bih t.) The perverse at Manẓūr (d. 1311–1312)’s classic dic- ā ā heart eagerly pursue the ambiguities tionary Lisān al-ʿArab, fitna means a in their attempt to make trouble dispute of opinions, madness, and the (fitnah) and to pin down a specific loss of one’s mind.14 In other words, meaning of their own: only God reason cannot be a universal refer- knows the true meaning. Those ence to truth, for rational thought is firmly grounded in knowledge say, a symbolic process that is grounded in ‘We believe in it: it is all from our seductive signs. Lord’—only those with real percep- tion will take heed. ‘Our Lord, do Emphasizing this meaning—that not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us. Grant us Your mer- a certain sign may refer to two oppo- cy: You are the Ever Giving. Our site true meanings, the Qurʾān orders Lord, You will gather all people on Muḥammad in sūra 21, āya 111, to say, the Day of which there is no doubt: “I do not know: this [time] may well God never breaks His promise.’16 be a test [fitna] for you, and enjoyment for a while.”15 The Prophet is there- The word in Qurʾān that was fore asked not to argue back rationally: translated into ambiguous is mutashābi- signs of power, as the unbelievers ar- hāt. The word tashābuh means resem- gued, can indeed be a sign of blessings. blance, similarity, or similitude. A verse Instead, the Prophet is asked to shift in the Qurʾān may indicate two differ- the question to the sphere of ghayb, ent meanings, much like power can be invisible reality, where articulating an a blessing and sign of faith, or yet a test, objective truth is not possible. or a manifestation of apostasy. Truth cannot be articulated at the semiotic level—that is, as visible reality, al-ẓāhir. 13 Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, 338. This shortcoming, however, does not 14 Muḥammad Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, year not mentioned), 3344–3346. 15 Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, 208. 16 Ibid., 34–35.

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move truth completely outside of the In different Ḥadīth collections (which semiotic sphere. True existence in the compile the reported deeds and say- semiotic sphere is contingent on ghayb, ings of the Prophet MuḤammad), the invisible reality. apocalyptic tribulations that precede the end of time are called fitan. Like- This is why the Qurʾān refers its wise, the war that started off among readers to the heart—a space that is of Muslims by the assassination of the this world, but non-semiotic and in- third Caliph, ʿUthmān Ibn ʿAffān visible, ghayb. In this way, the Qurʾān (47 BH-35 H/577-656 CE) and ended does not claim the existence of an ob- by the murder of the Prophet’s grand- jective method to reveal its true mean- son, al-Ḥusayn Ibn ʿAlī (4-61 H/626- ing. Instead, it points out to the hearts 680 CE,) is called ­al-fitna al-Kubra, or of its readers, and contrasts those who the grand fitna. Sexual seduction too are perverse at heart to those who ask comes as a meaning of fitna in Lisān God to not let their hearts deviate. al-ʿArab, which uses other words de- For the believers to be “firmly ground- rived from the root f-t-n to describe at- ed in knowledge,” rāsikhūn fī al-ʿIlm, traction or sexual allure. For example, they need to penetrate the semiotic the dictionary states, “People of Ḥijāz and rational level of the text and com- say: the woman fatanat-hu, if he adored municate by their hearts with knowl- and loved her.”18 Another meaning edge that inhabits the space of ghayb. in this vein in Lisān al-ʿArab is “She Nevertheless, truth, the ultimate true made him to tilt away, amālat-hu, from meaning of the Qur n, is known only ʾā his purpose.”19 In a report of Ḥadīth, by God. In fact, the believers finish the Prophet says, “After me, I have not their prayer by stating that a world left any fitnahmore severe to men than with no doubts comes only with the women.”20 Whether in war or love, fit- Day of Judgment. na works as an anarchic force, desta- In its everyday use, fitna usually bilizing the political and social order. refers to either war or sexual seduc- II. Sociological Reflections tion. In Lisān al-ʿArab, “Fitnah is what happens among people of fighting. Fit- My aim in this section is to situate nah is killing. . . .The Prophetic tra- the concept of fitna within social theo- dition, ‘I see fitan among your homes’ ry. The dialogue between this concept refers to killing, wars, and disputes that will erupt among groups of Muslims 18 Ibíd., 3344. once they divide in separate parties.”17 19 Ibíd., 3345. 20 MuḤammad Ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al- Bukhārī (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1993), vol. 17 Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 3346. 5, 1959.

30 Volumen 11, Número 1, 2018 Fitna Mohamed A. Mohamed and Western approaches may provide of civilization is no longer obscure some methodological insights, and to us. It must present the struggle could also help us to use the concept between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct fitna in order to understand a spectrum of destruction, as it works itself out of social, cultural and political phe- in the human species.23 nomena and formations among Mus- lim communities. Georges Bataille focused too on eroticism and death in his works. Un- With its connotations to war and like Freud, however, Bataille saw both sex, fitna reminds us of the two Freud- eroticism and death as aiming toward ian basic life instincts: Eros and Than- unity. He proposed an evolution- atos. Sigmund Freud mentioned that ary explanation to this phenomenon these two concepts may be conflated, by proposing that what characteriz- such as in sadism “where the death in- es animality—an archaic existence stinct twists the erotic aim in its own of human beings—is immediacy, or sense and yet at the same time fully sat- immanence.24 The movement from isfies the erotic urge, that we succeed animality to humanity was character- in obtaining the clearest insight into ized by a separation from the world, 21 its nature and its relation to Eros.” where the world is recognized as an In addition, Freud recognized that the objectified world, a world of things, death instinct is as original in human and where reality is the order of these beings as Eros is. He wrote, “I adopt things. The human being, separated the standpoint, therefore, that the in- from, and perhaps imprisoned in, this clination to aggression is an original, world of things, yearns to go back to a self-subsisting instinctual disposition lost world that s/he perceives as sacred. 22 in man.” Nevertheless, Freud saw The way back to this lost world can go these two instincts as essentially sepa- only through the removal of barriers, rate and contradictory in action: borders, where the animal in the world I may add now that civilization is like water in water. Bataille argues is a process in the service of Eros, that both sexual consummation and whose purpose is to combine single murder can achieve this unity. He human individuals, and after that writes, “only the beloved can in this families, then races, peoples and world bring about what our human nations, into one great unity, the limitations deny, a total blending unity of mankind. … And now, I think, the meaning of the evolution of two beings, a continuity between

21 Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (New 23 Ibid. York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1962), 68. 24 Georges Bataille, Theory of Religion (New York: 22 Ibid., 69. Zoe Books, 1989), 17.

Volumen 11, Número 1, 2018 31 Mohamed A. Mohamed Fitna two discontinuous creatures.”25 Death attitude—an attitude that says both too, celebrated in the ritual of sacri- yes and no to the seduced man. Bataille fice achieves this continuity. Bataille writes, “Putting oneself forward is the writes, “A violent death disrupts the fundamental feminine attitude, but creature’s discontinuity; what remains, that first movement is followed by a what the tense onlookers experience feigned denial.”29 Similarly, the Qurʾān in the succeeding silence, is the con- portrays feminine seduction not in tinuity of all existence with which the terms of nakedness, but rather as the victim is now one.”26 interplay and fusion of the signs of modesty and immodest, as expressed in Both sexual intimacy and death, sūra 24, āya 31, “they should not stamp therefore, create a fusion of what would their feet so as to draw attention to any be otherwise differentiated. Thus: “In- hidden charms.”30 Much like ghayb, timacy is violence, and it is destruc- hidden charms are both overt and se- tion, because it is not compatible with cret, present and absent, even if they the positing of the separate individu- are mostly invisible. al.”27 What we want to emphasize here is that attraction, and the energy be- In his work, Seduction, Jean Bau- hind it, does not arise because of the drillard resumes the project of Bataille. nature of the erotic object itself—at- Like Bataille, Baudrillard portrays a traction purely due to the properties picture of two worlds: one of labor, of a given erotic object would bring production, polarity, reality and pow- division rather than fusion, and create er, the other of play, signs, appearance a subject/object relationship. Bataille and seduction. He writes that “this al- writes, “The object of desire is differ- ternative is undoubtedly of the order ent from eroticism itself; it is not eroti- of the feminine, understood outside cism in its completeness, but eroticism the opposition masculine/feminine working through it.”28 One may then . . . This strength of the feminine is ask: if eroticism is the fusion of a man seduction.”31 The feminine seduces, and a woman in the consummation of Baudrillard argues, because it is nei- sex, what would make the woman, be- ther the same nor the opposite of the yond the sexual urge, seductive? Here, masculine. I want to highlight here Bataille points out to another form two significant differences in Baudril- of fusion. It is the elusiveness of her lard’s work that separate him from that of Bataille. 25 Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986), 20. 29 Ibid., 132. 26 Ibid, 22. 30 Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, 222. 27 Bataille, Theory of Religion, 51. 31 Jean Baudrillard, Seduction (New York: St. Mar- 28 Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality, 130. tin Press, 1990), 7.

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First, unlike in Bataille, there is no Bataille. Baudrillard distances him- deeper level, such as an archaic id or self clearly from any notion of unity, Freudian unconscious, which encloses or fusion. He writes, “The diagonals a deeper mythic meaning and animates or transversals of seduction may well the subject. Seduction operates (plays) break the oppositions between terms; on the surface, where there is nothing they do not lead to fused or con-fused other than this surface itself: “The ca- relations (that is mysticism) but to pacity immanent to seduction to deny dual relations.”36 For Baudrillard, real things their truth and turn it into a sex is not the climax of seduction, but game, the pure play of appearance, its murder.37 What opens the path to and thereby foil all systems of power desire is in fact the indefinable.38 Uni- and meaning with a mere turn of the ty, much like the Hegelian dialectic, hand.”32 Seduction’s play on the surface is unidirectional. What Baudrillard is is not the opposite of any true depth. proposing is the logic of the dual and Baudrillard is clear here: “It is not quite the dynamic of reversibility. Baudril- the feminine as surface that is opposed lard contrasts the logic of the dual, to the masculine as depth, but the fem- which “dominates the game, the ritu- inine as indistinctness of surface and al and the entire sphere of the rule” to depth. Or as indifference to the authen- the logic of the polar that is dialecti- tic and the artificial.”33 Appearance, cal and “organizes the universe of the however, does not mean complete visi- law, the social and meaning.”39 In oth- bility; that would be the hyperreality of er words, the logic of the polar creates pornography.34 Baudrillard writes, the rational world of reality, meaning, grammar, and law. The logic of the Seduction does not consist of a simple appearance, nor a pure ab- dual creates the playful world of the sence, but the eclipse of a presen- game, where rules are conventional, ce. Its sole strategy is to be-there/ and performance is parody, mere rit- not-there, and thereby produce a ual. This is why seduction promotes sort of flickering, a hypnotic me- reversibility. Baudrillard writes, “Se- chanism that crystallizes attention duction is stronger than production. 35 outside all concern with meaning. . . . It is a circular, reversible process The second difference between of challenges, oneupmanship and 40 Bataille and Baudrillard is in the con- death.” Here, what prevails is the cept of unity that is highlighted by 36 Ibid., 105. 32 Ibid., 8. 37 Ibid., 13. 33 Ibid., 10. 38 Ibid., 42, 43. 34 Ibid., 28–31. 39 Ibid., 155, 156. 35 Ibid., 85. 40 Ibid., 47.

Volumen 11, Número 1, 2018 33 Mohamed A. Mohamed Fitna principle of indeterminacy. Thus, as a conceptual possibility, but never Baudrillard states, “Only signs with- within reality or its semiotic repre- out referents, empty, senseless, absurd sentation. Fitna, as I stated above, is and elliptical signs, absorb us.”41 It is normative. This world is a world of fit- this indeterminacy, the elusive yes na—not because of its falsehood, but and no position of Bataille, but with- because of the impossibility of separat- out the possibility of union, what cre- ing truth and falsehood. ates the endless cycle of seduction and its continuous reversibility. Bataille Rejecting the two linguistic con- echoes, “It (seduction) implies a radi- cepts of truth and metaphor, and the cal indetermination that distinguishes implied hierarchy that relates them, it from a drive—drives being indeter- Ibn Taymiyya grounds meaning in is- minate in relation to their object, but tiʿmāl, or the inter-subjective use. In determined as force and origin, while addition, the single word does not the passion of seduction has neither have the capacity to articulate a true substance nor origin.” Central to se- meaning. Conventional meaning in- duction is play, “It is not from some habits a syntax, in which a single word libidinal investment, some energy of is situated. Ibn Taymiyya differenti- desire that this passion acquires its in- ates between two concepts: tafsīr and tensity, but from gaming as pure form taʾwīl, in which the first refers to the and from purely formal bluffing.”42 act of explaining speech or text, and the second refers to that of interpreta- To articulate the Islamic concept tion. He argues that interpretation (in of fitna with Baudrillard’s concept of Arabic, taʾwīl) comes from the root āl, seduction, we need to visit two works which means “to become.” Since this of the Sunni jurist and theologian Ibn is a chronological concept, Ibn Taymi- Taymiyya (1263–1328 CE): al-Ḥaqīqa yya argues, then the other meaning can wa al-Majāz and al-Iklīl fī al-Mutashāba be known only in the future—that is wa al-Taʾwīl. I have already explained in the other world. He does not mean that, semiotically, fitna is grounded that the otherworldly meaning is true, in signs that may carry one of two while ours is false or metaphorical. In different meanings. A pure meaning fact, both of these meanings are true. expressed by signs that provide true There are two kinds of truths—that is representation is as semiotically im- true meanings, each of them is called, possible as the existence of pure gold. for instance, “river.” There are rivers in Pure gold, much like God, exists only this world and rivers in Heaven. Nei- ther of them is the true meaning, which 41 Ibid., 74. renders the other a mere metaphor. 42 Ibid., 81, 82.

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Those are different truths that share of mysticism Bernard McGinn’s un- a common word because of their sim- derstanding of pseudo-Dionysius. Mc- ilarity in some aspects—aspects, which Ginn states, we currently do not know. We can, for All things both reveal and conceal instance, explain the word “river.” Its God. The dissimilar similarity that interpretation, however, its other true constitutes every created manifes- meaning, will be known only in the tation of God is both a similarity to other world.43 be affirmed and a dissimilarity to be denied. Therefore the universe is In order to further situate, and both necessary as an image and im- probably distinguish, fitna in the con- possible as a representation of the text of Western sociological theory, I God for whom there is no adequate 45 will invoke Timothy Bewes’ brilliant representation. work: Reification. Bewes argues that Meaning or Truth, in Ibn Tay- “reversibility implies a certain under- miyya’s works, is neither absent nor lying assumption: that there is an oth- present; it is incomplete, because only er to language, something completely ‘some aspects of it’ are covered by the outside the text and inarticulable by notions of ghayb and ẓāhir, or the vis- it; that the text is as nothing, merely ible reality. This is the Sunni under- thinglike, in relation to this outside standing of ghayb; its absence or pres- 44 . . . .” Unlike this understanding of ence is only partial. The Encyclopedia the existence a parallel universe, fitna, of Islam defines ghayb as “what is hid- in fact, works from within the text, den, inaccessible to the senses and to and from within reality itself. Signs reason—thus, at the same time absent are not, as Baudrillard argues, empty. from human knowledge and hidden Signs have a meaning—a true mean- in divine wisdom.”46 The definition ing, to use Ibn Taymiyya’s words. Fitna of the Encyclopedia is inaccurate, for is propagated because of the existence the concept of ghayb partially overlaps of true meanings that are neither iden- with that of ẓāhir. tical, nor opposite—meanings that are similar from certain angles. 45 Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism, vol. 1 of The Presence of God: A History of Western This Sunni understanding of fitna Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroad, 1991), in Ibn Taymiyya is closer to historian 174, as quoted in Thomas Carlson, Indiscretion: Finitude and the Naming of God (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999), 161. 43 AḤmad Ibn Taymiyyah, Al-Iklīl fī al- Mutashabih 46 “Al-Ghayb,” Encyclopedia of Islam, Second (Alexandria, Egypt: Dār al-Baṣīrah, 2002). Edition. Brill Online, http://referenceworks. 44 Timothy Bewes, Reification or the Anxiety of Late brillonline.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/entries/ Capitalism (London, New York: Verso, 2002), encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-ghayb-COM_0231 202, 203. (accessed February 1st, 2018).

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This overlapping, this grounding A people’s ethos is the tone, charac- of fitna, is at odds with the Hegelian ter, and quality of their life, its mo- synthesis: the unity of opposites and ral and aesthetic style and mood; it is the underlying attitude toward yet, it also stands at odds with cosmic themselves and their world that life dualism: the existence of two irreduc- reflects. Their worldview is their pic- ible opposites. The two overlapping ture of the way things in sheer actua- principles of the dual are engaged in lity are, their concept of nature, of an alluring relationship that is charac- self, of society. It contains their most terized by contingency, and grounded comprehensive ideas of order.47 in a theology of attributes that invites Geertz frames the relationship human meaning, while rejecting an- between worldview and ethos in the thropomorphism. This relationship is famous is/ought problem, and writes further rooted in a theology of human that the powerfully coercive “ought” action that is neither independent, is felt as if it grew out of a compre- nor a mere reflection of God’s actions. hensive and factual “is,” and in such a This theology rejects the existence of way, religion grounds the most specific universals independent of reality. This requirements of human action in the is the world of fitna, where truth over- most general contexts of human exis- lies falsehood, hir overlaps with b in, ẓā āṭ tence.48 One wonders how a Muslim šar ah with aq qah, and divinity with īʿ Ḥ ī worldview of fitna would shape out the humanity. Fitna is the essential charac- ethos of law. Geertz himself helps us ter of this world. To say this is not to answer this question. invite condemnation, for fitna, whether as sex, or fighting, is not only allowed, Reflecting on the concept of but also instructed and celebrated. The ḥaqq, or truth, Geertz finds that al- commandments to fight for God, and Ḥaqq is God, while ḥaqq is used to the prohibition against celibacy and refer to reality. Geertz offers two in- encouragement to stay always married sightful observations here. First, there have plenty of textual evidence in both is a connection of identity between the Qurʾān and Ḥadīth. God and reality. This connection— or overlapping as I argued above—re- III. Fitna Applied conceptualizes the role and meaning A. In the Law of truth, and reverses the is/ought problem as it is applied in Muslim so- In “Ethos, Worldview and the cieties. Geertz writes, Analysis of Sacred Symbols,” Clif- ford Geertz defines worldview and 47 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 127. ethos as follows: 48 Ibid., 126.

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But ḥaqq is something else again: a expected problem. How would ḥaqq conception that anchors a theory be identified in legal disputes? This of duty as a set of sheer assertions, question is, in fact, another version so many statements of brute fact, in of the issue of meaning that we have a vision of reality as being in its es- sence imperative, a structure not of discussed in relation to Ibn Taymi- objects but of wills. The moral and yya. Geertz’s answer goes along the ontological change places, at least same lines as that of Ibn Taymiyya. If from our point of view.49 meaning is anchored in the use—that is in intersubjectivity—not in any Geertz understands the crucial sig- claim of an independent and objective nificance of this overlapping. He writes, meaning, identifying ḥaqq is similarly “But the relation of the upper-case grounded, not in the skills of the judge, sense of R (or, more precisely, ḥa’) and but in shahādah—that is the spoken the lower-case one is the heart of the witnessing. The weight of justice, that matter.”50 Geertz argues that this se- is of joining ḥaqq with Ḥaqq falls on a mantic relationship turns the real into community of shuhūd ʿudūl, or upright “a deeply moralized, active, demanding witnesses. Geertz writes, “Where the real, not a neutral, metaphysical ‘being,’ normative and the actual are ontolog- merely sitting there awaiting observa- ically conjoined--Ḥaqq with a capital tion and reflection.”51 This overlap- Ḥa’—and oral testimony (or the re- ping—which structurally parallels the cord of oral testimony) is virtually the overlapping of meanings, or truths, in sole way in which what transpires in the writing of Ibn Taymiyya—brings an the world--ḥaqq with a small one—is interesting legal notion. Geertz writes, represented juridically.”53 “Muslim adjudication is not a matter of joining an empirical situation to a jural Unfortunately, however, Geertz principle; they come already joined. . . seems to see not just partial overlap- . Facts are normative: it is no more pos- ping, such as the one Ibn Taymiyya sible for them to diverge from the good conceptualized, but a complete one. than for God to lie.”52 The historicity of Ḥaqq, according to Geertz, is its incarnation in the The second observation that Qurʾān. With (unfortunate) confi- Geertz offers here is a response to an dence, he states, But the notion of the certainty and 49 Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (New York: Basic comprehensiveness of the law as Books, 1983), 187. embooked … in the Quran power- 50 Geertz, Local Knowledge, 188. fully reduces, if it does not wholly 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid., 189. 53 Ibid., 192.

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remove, any sense that questions In al-Muwāfaqāt, al-Shāṭibī (720-790 of what is just and what unjust may H/1320-1388 CE) wrote that “Ruling be, in and of themselves, ambi- according to ẓann in general has been guous, quixotic, or unanswerable.54 established in the details of Sharīʿah.”58 This regrettable conclusion by In addition, al-Shāṭibī argued that Geertz is diametrically opposed to a both ẓann and qaṭʿ, or certainty, are long and established legal tradition equal in Sharīʿah (Islamic law).59 Al- in Islam. Muslim jurists have never Āmidī (551-631 H/1156-1234 CE) too pretended that their law is founded stated that “A difference in proving on certainty. On the contrary, they that something prohibited by ẓann or agreed that ẓann, doubt or uncertainty, qaṭʿ does not create a difference in the is enough, not only to deduct legal rul- strength of the prohibition.”60 ings in specific cases, but to establish In Al-MustaṢfa, al-Ghazālī pres- legal principles as well. It is the con- ents an interesting argument. He re- sensus of Muslim jurists—except for sponds to the question of authenticity Ibn Ḥazm (384-456 H/994-1064 CE) of aḥādīth al-āḥād, which are the reports and his marginal Ẓāhirī school—that of Ḥadīth that are narrated by only one, ann is a valid basis of legal rulings. ẓ two or three narrators. The problem Al-Ghazālī (450-505 H/1058-1111 al-Ghazālī is articulating is whether CE) wrote that “The consensus of such reports should be considered to be the Companion is to follow the pre- evidence enough to establish legal rul- dominant probability, ẓann ghālib.55 ings and duties. Unlike the mutawātir Al-Sarkhas (Died 490 H/1097 CE) ī (that is the report that was narrated by wrote that “The agreement (among a larger group of people, and hence its scholars) is that certainty, ʿilm al-ya- authenticity is certain) the āḥād’s au- qīn, is not a condition in making an thenticity is uncertain—that is ẓannī. action required or allowed.”56 Al-Rāzī Al-Ghazālī writes, “Sanctioning an (544-604 H/1149-1208 CE) too wrote action, once there is khabar, narration that “Ruling in religion with mere (that dictates this action), is one thing; ann is permissible in the consensus ẓ whether this khabar is true or a lie is a of ummah, all Muslim community.”57 different thing.”61 In other words, taklīf,

54 Ibid., 190. 55 Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Šifāʾ al-Ghalīl (Baghdad: 58 Abū IsḤāq al-Šhāṭibī, al-Muwāfaqāt (Khubar: Maṭbaʿat al-Iršād, 1971), 202. Dār Ibn ʿAffān, 1997), vol. 2, 26. 56 Abū Bakr al-Sarkhasī, UṢūl al-Sarkhasī (Hyde- 59 Ibid., vol. 1, 519. rabad: Lajnat IḤyāʾ al-Maʿārif al-Nuʿmāniyyah, 60 Abū al-Ḥasan al-Āmidī, Al-Iḥkām fī UṢūl al-Aḥkām 1993), vol. 2, 141. (Riyadh: Dār al-Ṣumayʿī, 2003), vol. 1, 140. 57 Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb (Beirut: 61 Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Al-MustaṢfa Min Dār al-Fikr, 1981), vol. 12, 282. ʿIlm al-UṢūl (Medina: Šharikat al-Madinah

38 Volumen 11, Número 1, 2018 Fitna Mohamed A. Mohamed legal responsibility, is grounded in the an examination of many—or perhaps mere existence of khabar (again, narra- most, but never all—of its particulars.64 tion), not in its truthfulness, once your best guess is that this khabar is likely To conclude this section, I will true.62 Muslim jurists established sev- briefly present a curious discussion eral legal principles that circle around among uṢūlī scholars, or the scholars of the principles of law. This discussion ghālib al-ẓann, which we may translate into “predominant probability.” For in- brings us back to the concept of fitna stance, take into consideration the fol- and Geertz’s conceptualization of the lowing rule: what should be considered notion of truth. The discussion evolves is the predominant, the most frequent, around an intriguing question: using not the rare.63 When two elements legal reasoning, different jurists would mix, the rule is based on that which is likely reach different rulings for the predominant. This rule, for instance, same case. The multiplicity of opinions could result in naming an alloy “gold,” indicates that their rulings are based on even though the alloy is, in fact, not ẓann not qaṭʿ, probability not certainty. pure gold. The legal examples in which Because an action based on ẓann is le- the rule is based on that which is pre- gally correct, we will have contradicto- dominant are countless. People are ry actions, all of them are correct. Prac- expected to lose focus when they pray; tically, there is no problem. However, they are expected to go to pilgrimage, theoretically, are all of them true? and also to not forget to buy gifts and The consensus among Muslim commodities that are not available in jurists is that demanding the realiza- their native country, or to use water tion of truth would be unreasonable, to perform ritual ablutions and attain since it is beyond human capacity. ritual purity, even though the water is Accordingly, all mujtahids, the schol- obviously murky or dirty. In all these ars who are involved in serious legal cases, the legal ruling is based on the reasoning, will be rewarded by God for predominant probability, ghālib al- their work. Jurists are divided into two ẓann. Interestingly, al-Ghazālī argued schools, however, in other ways that that even the rational evidence (that relate to this question. The Muʿtazila is, deduction) is based on probability, and Ashʿarī theologians believe that since the universal is deducted from all mujtahids are correct. The Ashʿarī, al-Munawwarah li-al-Ṭibāʿah, year is not men- however, believe there could be several tioned), vol. 2, 185. truths, while the Muʿtazila argue that 62 Al-MustaṢfa, Šifāʾ al-Ghalīl, 183. 63 AḤmad al-Raysūnī, Naẓariyyat al-Taqrīb wa al- 64 Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Miʿyār al-ʿIlm fī Fann Taghlīb wa Taṭbīqātuha fī al-ʿUlūm al-Siyāsiyyah al-Manṭiq (Cairo: Al-Maṭbaʿah al-ʿArabiyyah, (Al-Manṣurah: Dār al-Kalimah, 2010), 102. 1927), 160.

Volumen 11, Número 1, 2018 39 Mohamed A. Mohamed Fitna there is one truth, but all mujtahids are B. In Apocalypse correct, whether they reach it or not. A majority of jurists, however, have held Apocalyptic events in collections that truth is one: those who reach it are of Ḥadīth are included in chapters of correct, those who do not reach it are fitna. For instance, al-Bukhārī puts incorrect. Nevertheless, regardless of these reports in a chapter titled “The correctness, everyone will be rewarded Book of Fitan (plural of fitna.)” Muslim by God for their effort and labor. includes them in a chapter titled “The Book of Fitan and Portents of the Last Had Geertz attended to this con- Hour.” Similarly, Abū Dāwūd includes troversy, he would have proposed to them in his chapter “The Book of Fit- those jurists the use of capital T, and an and Fierce Battles.” Al-Tirmidhī small t (Truth and truth). The major- too calls this chapter “The Book of Fit- ity calls those who do not reach God’s an.” It is the same title for these apoca- True ruling mistaken. However, it is an lyptic narratives in Ibn Mājah as well. expected mistake, not a sin, so they are The end of this world is preceded by rewarded by God. The Ashʿarī, adopt a signs, first come numerous minor signs, position similar to that of Geertz, who then a few, but major signs follow up. argued that jural principle and empir- ical cases come already joined. They The minor signs have two basic believe that God’s true ruling is born characters. First, there is an increase after legal reasoning, so several true in falsehood, and a decrease in truth. For instance, rulings could coexist. The Muʿtazila, attending to both capital T and small Ignorance overcomes knowledge; t, argued that there is one True ruling, obedience to one’s parents ceases but the other mujtahids’ rulings are all off; the unqualified assumes offi- true. This legal discussion is in fact ces; bad people are the community also a theological discussion, for it goes leaders; adultery and usury spread out; God’s law is forgotten, etc. along the same lines of arguing about … the Qurʾān will be forgotten; God’s attributes. It is a theoretical MuḤammad’s tribe of Qurayš will controversy rooted in the overlapping go extinct; other tribes will revert of True ruling with true rulings. All ju- to paganism; and the Kaʿbah, the rists have maintained one consensus, most holy house in Islam, will be however: demanding the True ruling is destroyed.65 beyond human capacity; fabricating a false ruling is sinful; what is required is 65 Mohamed Mohamed, “Apocalypse in Islam,” in finding only a human true ruling. This Apocalypse in Context: Apocalyptic Currents Through is the heart of normative fitna. History, ed. Kelly Murphy and Justin Scheduler (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016), 234.

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Second, there is an increase in the of bread. Yet, Muslims must be awa- overlapping of ghayb on ẓāhir. In a report re of his tricks: his heaven is hell, of Ḥadīth, the Prophet says, “When the and his hell is heaven. Everything he says is trickery.69 Day of Resurrection approaches, the vi- sion of a believer will hardly fail to come On the other hand, there is the true.”66 Metaphysical signs that defy the coming back of Jesus. “The main role objective rules of the physical world of Jesus after his descent (from Heav- seem to be more frequent. For instance, en) is associated with al-Dajjāl, inso- “trees, stones, beasts, inanimate objects, far as Jesus is the one who will kill al- and even sandal straps and whip ends Dajjāl with his spear and protect the 67 will speak up!” This steady increasing believers from al-Dajjāl’s deception of the overlap between ghayb and ẓāhir and evil.”70 The rest of the major signs further destabilizes the world. Disorder follow the killing of al-Dajjāl and soon leads to tribulations and fierce wars. this world ends. Eventually, we witness the emergence of the major signs. Two of these signs are In this confrontation, we see for especially important for us in this study. the first time an absolute truth fight- ing an absolute falsehood. The world On the one hand, the increasing of fitna, of incompleteness and over- of falsehood reaches its climax by the lapping, is fading away. The spread of coming of al-Dajjāl, a Muslim version ghayb reaches its climax by the com- of the anti-Christ. Al-Dajjāl’s fitna is plete disappearance of ẓāhir. Ghayb severe, and Muslims are instructed to identifies withẓā hir. Falsehood, pre- steer away from him to avoid his de- sented as Dajjāl, “disappears just as the ception.68 In essence, he is the absolute salt dissolves itself in water.”71 There falsehood; in appearance, he pretends is no longer fitna, but this world is no to be the absolute Truth: God Himself. longer either. Truth prevails, mean- Al-Dajjāl’s actions seem miracu- ing is complete, and people are either lous. It will rain on his order. He believers or non-believers. This is the will kill a man and restore him back end of fitna! to life. He comes with heaven and hell, a river, water and a mountain

66 MuḤammad Ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al- Bukhārī (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1993), vol. 6, 2574. 69 Mohamed, “Apocalypse in Islam,” 238. 67 Mohamed, “Apocalypse in Islam,” 235. 70 Ibid., 239. 68 MuḤammad Ibn ʿAbd-Allāh al-Ḥākim al-Nīsā- 71 Muslim Ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qušayrī al-Nisābūrī, būrī, al-Mustadrak ʿAla al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (Beirut: Dār Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Riyadh: Dār Ṭībah, 2006), vol. 2, al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2002), vol. 4, 576. 1342.

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Ibn Taymiyyah, AḤmad. Al-Iklīl fī Mohamed, Mohamed. “Apocalypse in al-Mutashābih wa al-Taʾwīl. Islam.” In Apocalypse in Context: Alexandria, Egypt: D r al-Im n, ā ā Apocalyptic Currents Through History, year not mentioned. edited by Kelly Murphy and Jus- ———. Al-Ḥaqīqah wa al-Majāz. tin Scheduler, 231-252. Minne- Alexandria, Egypt: Dār al- apolis: Fortress Press, 2016. Baṣīrah, 2002. MacDonald, D. B. and Gardet, L. Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd Ed., s.v. “al-Ghayb.” Leiden: Brill Publi- shers, 1979.

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