Rosen, Ehud (2015) Modern conceptualisations of bid‘a : Wahhābīs, Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20358 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. Modern conceptualisations of bid‘a: Wahhābīs, Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood Ehud Rosen Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2015 Department of Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East SOAS, University of London 1 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: ___8 May, 2015___ 2 Abstract One of the most interesting ways to follow the development of a religion over time is to look at the way that basic religious terms have been perceived in various times, places and circumstances. The term bid‘a in this respect is unique, since it touches the very essence of the development of Islam itself: in particular, what is permitted to be innovated, and who should have the authority to decide what is or is not permitted. This work opens with a short historical survey of the origins of this term, and the ways it was understood in the first centuries of Islam. The research spans the ‘modern’ period from the end of the eighteenth century up until the late 20th century – an era of great social, geographic and political changes, which in the Middle East also saw the decline and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire that had ruled the region for centuries under the authority of Islam. We will look into modern conceptualisations of bid‘a of two main groups – conservatives and revivalists. More specifically we will delve into the writings of two groups: 1. The early ‘salafi’ revivalists and the Muslim Brotherhood, the latter being in many respects the main group which continued the course of the former. 2. Prominent ‘ulamā’ from the Wahhābī trend, to which we dedicate two chapters, examining both classic and more recent views, and the ways they adopted to return to their notion of ‘pure’ Islam; We will look at the causes which brought about the decline of Islam according to their thinking, and their thoughts on the relationship between the neccessity for renewal in Islam and deeply rooted religious guidelines – in this case, on the question of innovation. In each chapter we will also try to determine the overall scope of the discussion on bid‘a, and its place in light of the discussions on related religious terms, such as tajdīd, ijtihād, shirk and ḍalāla. 3 Note on Transliteration The transliteration throughout the text is based on the system of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), and efforts have been made to adhere to the Arabic format, both in the singular and the plural. Letters accentuated with a shadda ( ّ ) were doubled. Some common words were anglicised and capitalised, for example: Qur’an; Sura; Hadith; Sunna; Shari‘a; Shi‘a; Sufi; Jihad; Hajj; Mufti. In referencing and bibliography, names of personalities and various institutions, titles of books, journals and articles have been rendered as locally spelled and transliterated; this is particularly significant if they are non-Arabic or appear in a non-Arabic text, thus in some cases the spelling is different from the one in the body of the text. In the text itself, non-Arabic names of organisations like the Jamaat-e-Islami or Tablighi Jamaat appear in their common English spelling. Following is the table of transliterations: q ق z ز ā ,’ ء k ك s س b ب l ل sh ش t ت m م ṣ ص th ث n ن ḍ ض j ج h ه ṭ ط ḥ ح w, ū و ẓ ظ kh خ y, ī ي ‘ ع d د gh غ dh ذ f ف r ر 4 Glossary of frequently used Arabic terms ‘almāniyya – secularism bid‘a – innovation (plural = bida‘) bid‘a ‘amaliyya – innovation related to acts ‘ādāt – innovations related to customs ‘aqīdāt – credal innovations ‘ibādāt – innovations related to ritual devotion bid‘a ḥaqīqiyya – truthful innovation bid‘a iḍāfiyya – relative innovation / innovation which has to do with adding words bid‘a i‘tiqādiyya – innovation related to creed and belief bid‘a mukfira – innovation which leads to unbelief bid‘a mufsaqa – innovation which leads to a sin bid‘a qabīḥa – repugnant innovation ḍalāla – deviation /going astray da‘wa – proselytising farīḍa – religious duty farḍ ‘ayn – individual duty farḍ kifāya – collective duty fasād – corruption fiqh – jurisprudence fitna – sedition ghulūw – excessiveness ḥākimiyya – governance ijmā‘ – consensus ijtihād – independent reasoning ‘ilm – knowledge irjā’ – a separation between the claims of faith and deeds of worship iṣlāḥ – reform ittibā‛ – tradition kufr – unbelief madhhab – religious school makrūh – a disliked practice mawlid – annual commemoration of the birthday of a saint / prophet 5 milla – religious creed mu‘āmalāt – social transactions munkar – denounced issues murtadd – apostate qaṣad – intent qiyās – analogy ṣaḥāba – companions of the Prophet ṣalāt – the five obligatory prayers shirk – polytheism shubbuhāt – doubts tābi‘ūn – followers of the companions tajdīd – renewal taqlīd – imitation tawḥīd – divine unity ta’wīl – interpretation ‘ubūdiyya – servitude ʻulamā’ – religious scholars umarā’ – rulers umma – nation wasaṭ – middle path 6 Table of contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 3 Note on Transliteration .................................................................................................. 4 Glossary of frequently used Arabic terms ...................................................................... 5 Introduction.................................................................................................................. 10 Background Chapter: Bid‘a – the crystallisation and development ............................ 22 I. The early days ....................................................................................................... 22 II. Bid‘a in the Hadith .............................................................................................. 23 III. Further developments since the third century of Islam ..................................... 27 Chapter one: The perception of bid‘a by the early Salafis .......................................... 47 I. General introduction ............................................................................................ 47 Biographies of the relevant scholars ................................................................. 49 II. The sources of authority ...................................................................................... 52 (a) Qur’an and Sunna ...................................................................................... 53 (b) fiqh ............................................................................................................... 55 (c) ijma‘ ............................................................................................................. 57 (d) ijtihād, iṣlāḥ and tajdīd ................................................................................. 61 III. Terms affiliated with bid‘a ................................................................................. 65 shirk and ḍalāla .................................................................................................. 65 IV. Bid‘a – definition & types .................................................................................. 68 V. Bid‘a – what needs to be done to avoid it ........................................................... 74 VI. Other types of bid‘a ............................................................................................ 75 Adding adhāns to prayers .................................................................................. 76 Annual commemorations of birthdays of saints [mawālid] .............................. 78 Celebrating the Prophet’s birthday .................................................................... 79 Other commemorations ..................................................................................... 81 Visiting graves ................................................................................................... 84 Are tobacco and spirits permissible ................................................................... 86 VII. The Sufis in the eyes of the early Salafi ‘ulamā’ ............................................... 87 VIII. Jews and Christians in the eyes of the early Salafi