92 Current Islam Faces its Tradition Mohammed Arkoun The original version of this essay was published in French in Aspects d'Islam (Brussels: Facultes Universitaires, Saint Louis, 1985). An English translation appears for the first time in this volume, since this study sheds light on the concept of' 'rupture" introduced by the author and debated in this seminar. "What is there to keep men from believing, of the Tradition and traditions in the Islamic criticism, is treated as having no effect at now that the Good Way has become appa­ domain. Finally, we will strive on the basis all on the absolute equation: Islam = Au­ rent to them, and from imploring the of our findings to rethink the notion of Isla­ thentic Tradition. The sum total of beliefs, forgiveness of their Lord, except their refus­ mic Tradition in its totality. practices, institutions, ethico-juridical al to admit that the traditional lot (sunna) of norms, and texts produced and recognised the Ancients will reach them or that they as Tradition by the community (umma) only will be put face to face with Torment?" serve to show that Islam is defined and will­ - Qur'an 18:55 I - The Concepts of Islam and ed by God, according to this approach. The Tradition Tradition is thus the incarnation of the "reli­ "According to the tradition (sunna) ofthe gion of Truth" (din al-haqq) in history; it is a Messengers that We have sent before you, The debate about tradition is for the most force of sanctification and transcendentalisa­ and you will find no change in Our Tradi­ tion (tanzih) ofthe space-time in which the tion" part already open in the Qur'an: the whole Qur'anic message acts as an overturning life of the Community is enacted. In this - Qur'an 17:77 "modernity" with respect to the beliefs and way, the Caliph, the Sultan, and the Amir It is no simple matter to speak of Islam traditional practices allowed by "the - although essentially secular - have be­ facing its Tradition in the difficult historical fathers" or "the ancestors" (aba' used sixty­ come sacred to quite different degrees. A circumstances of Muslim societies since the three times; al-awwalun, "the ancients", like conception explains why every Com­ 1950s. Leaving aside the difficulties of thirty-eight times). The preceding Arab munity member is treated as the immediate speaking adequately, without reductionism tradition is entirely portrayed as belonging contemporary of all members past, present, or the blind equation of the Tradition with a to the realm of ignorance, disorder, injus­ and future. This approach grants authority great scriptural religion, we, in fact, face tice, error, paganism, and oppression - in a to the spiritual ethos of the Tradition which four possible approaches, illustrated by four word, "the darkness of the jahiliyya". The nourishes the feeling of community identity, concurrent forms of discourse: Tradition - with a capital "T" because it is raises the hopes of believers, and assigns an eschatological and ontological finality to 1) Current Islamic discourse, which tends to divine, unmodifiable by man, and the ex­ pression of Eternal Truth - after twenty concrete historical behaviour, all the while dominate all the others by its political power refusing to integrate historicity with all of and great social and psychological scope. It years of struggle at Mecca and Madina, these effects. It is thus radically opposed to is deeply rooted in the mythical dimension seeks to enter a hostile socio-cultural field the "scientific" attitude that, in contrast, of the Tradition while unwittingly secularis­ and becomes, precisely, Islamic Tradition. takes into account only "facts" (names, ing the religious contents of that Tradition. Must we, in consequence, designate the no­ events, dates, textual statements and the 2) Classical Islamic discourse, which ex­ tion of Tradition from the beginning of like) that are verifiable according to the pro­ plains the Tradition in the period of its being Islam onwards with a capital "T" because it cedures of historical criticism. formed and fixed in authentic texts. is the only "orthodox" expression of the only Tradition received by the Community? The second approach consists of leaving 3) Orientalist discourse, which applies to Or, is it appropriate to redefine Islam as one open the concepts of Islam and tradition the forming and fixing stage a philological socio-historical process among others, which because they are subject to the incessant and historical critique, predominantly histori­ has resulted in the formation of a tradition changes that history imposes. This is a mat­ cist and positivist and which belongs to the termed "Islamic" , but always coincident ter of integrating, in analysis as in concrete nineteenth century. with others, or modified by successive "in­ practice, the spiritual ethos of Islam­ 4) The discourse of the sciences of man and novations" or "modernities"? Tradition with its historicity. This concern is society, which aims to rework the preceding new in Islamic thought; indeed, it goes The first approach corresponds to that of the beyond the criticism of chains of authorities three to emphasise in each instance those current Islamic discourse of movements questions that are repressed as unthinkable and hadith texts as conceived and practised termed "Islamist", but, more generally, to by the most prominent traditionists (muhad­ or "unthought", and, thus, to make possible all reformist discourse (islah). According to dithun). How does religion achieve form, a current critical revival of the problem of this view, Islam is entirely contained in the continuity, and consistency in a social body the Tradition and traditions in Islam. Qur'an as the Prophetic tradition (hadith) and in a more or less rapid social progress? To deal with both the thought and the un­ has explained it. That this tradition was This question arises as soon as we consider made the object of oral transmission and thought that have accumulated in Islamic religion from the angle of the tradition that then written during the first three centuries Tradition for fourteen centuries, we will be­ is its expression. From this perspective, gin by examining the concepts of Islam and Hijra, that it consequently results from a Islam is never concluded; it must be rede­ tradition. We will then describe the situation complex socio-historical process subject to fined in each socio-cultural context and at Current Islam Faces its Tradition 93 each historical phase. It comprises, never­ Let us take a closer look at the notion of why the two terms apply equally well to theless, the following stable constituent ele­ tradition. The arguments, discussions, and secular information from history and litera­ ments: writing of the first two centuries of the Hi­ ture (adab) as to religious traditions that 1) The Qur' anic corpus (mushaf) ; jra, in order to assert the notion of Prophetic touch in particular the Qur'an and the tradition (sunnat al-nabi) against local cus­ hadith. 2) The various texts of traditions and juris­ toms or even other traditions actually going prudence; This indicates that the gathering of informa­ back to the companions of the Prophet tion about the Qur'an, the sira (biography of 3) The five canonical obligations and the (sahaba) or the followers (tabi'un), put into Muhammad), and the hadith was accom­ ritual of their performance; circulation a technical vocabulary often plished in a cultural climate in which secular muddled by inconsistent usage. One will re­ 4) The spiritual ethos common to all of the objectives - such as poetry, political his­ collect in particular the terms: sunna, kha­ faithful and characteristic of the Tradition. 4 tory, maghazi or military campaigns and bar, athar, sama', naql, riwaya, hadith. economic facts - were as important as reli­ The stabilising of these elements took time: All these terms had a standard meaning in gious ones. The Umayyad and then the this is what I call the socio-historical process Arabic linguistic usage before Islam; they Abbasid state needed these akhbar (plural of the formation of the Tradition. We will were worked into the new semantic context of khabar) in order to forge both an "ortho­ also see that, as a matter of fact, the seman­ created by the Qur'an and the experience of doxy" and a cultural tradition equally indis­ tic stabilisation of the Qur'an and the Madina in order to designate specifically a pensable for consolidating the legitimacy Prophetic traditions is impossible insofar as tradition, at once religious and cultural, in and unity of "Islamic" power. it is a matter of living tradition. By the latter the process of formation. I mean of texts by which the faithful live , This official aspect of the forming and fixing producing history and being unendingly re­ Sunna is used in the Qur'an in relation to of an Islamic Tradition is essential for under­ produced by it. One of the functions of the God to designate the customary manner of standing three consequences that are not Tradition is to furnish the necessary refe­ acting towards peoples who lived in error equally addressed by Islamic thought: the rents in order to secure unanimity about when the prophets transmitted the Revela­ splintering of the Tradition into Sunni and certain readings of the sacred texts, which is tion. More generally, sunna designates the Shi'ite; the suppression, at least in theory, to say that the unity of Islam ideally claimed customary behaviour of a group; this is why by the science of usul al-fiqh, of all local by the believers occurs progressively in the sunna introduced by Muhammad only traditions deemed non-Islamic; and the history! on the basis of the four necessary gradually and with difficulty gains recogni­ weakness and discontinuity of a theology of referents enumerated above.2 tion over local customs.