Finished this innovative revisionism of big history. Its interpretation of Enlightenment and other philosophical thought is faulty at times, it is acceptable for the purpose of the book: To show that there is no linear social evolution from hunter-gatherer to modern states.

1/ Throughout history humans have formed cities and civilizations, big and small, democratic and authoritarian, having priests or only believers, and interchanged between all these types of social organizations.

2/

In the final days of Ramadan Muslims are focused on Laylat al-Qadr (LQ), the night of destiny, which Islamic history identifies as the historical moment of the revelation of the Qurʾān (and all previous revelations).

A thread 🧵 on my research:

brill.com/view/book/edco…

1/ Ramadan and other months existed as sacred time in pre-Islamic times, and were integrated and re-assigned in Islam. But LQ is uniquely designated as sacred time by the Quran, *created* by the religion when itself formed. There is no LQ without Islam, and no Islam without LQ.

2/

What is the wisdom of creating mankind?

The Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam Kemālpāshazāde (d.940/1534) in his treatise on creed provides a small summary:

-God was a hidden secret→He wants to be known→creates creation.
-Of God’s Names, Light is manifested→from which... →from which He creates the Muḥammadan Reality→from which He creates all existence→Mankind is the best part of this creation→Mankind cannot escape that it needs to settle for rest as it has a body→a body needs a place→earth is created as its place on which Man is created→

“Historically the expansion of colonialism had to do with the broader question, Who is it that the Earth belongs to? That was the key question underlying colonial conquest and imperial expansion since the 15th century…

newframe.com/thoughts-on-th… …European powers had decided that the Earth in its entirety belonged to them. They were its true owners, and they could occupy lands that were populated by foreign people…To a large extent, colonial expansion was a planetary project…

A small thread on the Islamic theological theories of language:

Quran verse 2:31 “He taught Adam all the names” is central to the Islamic discussion on the nature of language. The majority of theologians among the Muʿtazila, early Ashʿarī, and Māturīdī schools understood... 1/

https://twitter.com/yasirqadhi/status/1275035197654937600

...ʿallama in its apparent meaning of ‘taught’, as in that language, both in form (lafẓa) and meaning (maʿanā), was in one way or another divinely imposed (bi-l-tawqīfi) on the first human(s). But a minority among the Muʿtazila proposed an alternative semantic meaning... 2/

Premodern Islam had a quality something modern Islam has lost: the quality to embrace multiplicity and ambiguity.

For centuries the Islamic intellectual tradition discussed in detail Qurʾānic multiplicity and ambiguity in meaning and recitation. We had a *qualitive* approach to the Qurʾān and how we understood it to be true and historically authentic. With Enlightenment modernity we started to have a *quantative* approach to truth, this mathematical approach viewed ambiguity as equal to untruth.

This development from pre-classical proto-Sunnism to demarcated classical Sunnism is also discernible within exegetical history whereby school-defining heuristics on key verses went from “it could be saying (yuqālu)” in the 9th century to “Ahl al-Sunna say” in the 11th century 1/

https://twitter.com/bdaiwi_historia/status/1267903104432947201

An important element in the development to this demarcated Sunnī identity is it self-othering from important ‘others’ such as the Muʿtazila. A common phrase in post-classical works is: “And this opinion is what is adhered to by the
ahl al-Sunna, while the Muʿtazila say...” 2/

All the disinformation going around among Muslims on so many issues, Islam, world politics, and now #Corona , whereby people forward anything blindly, shows that Muslims really must learn critical engagement to information.

A small thread on Asbāb al-ʿilm

1/ Classical epistemology is discussed in works on creed/philosophical theology (ʿaqīda/ʿilm al-kalām) and philosophy of law (uṣūl al-fiqh), as “causes of knowledge” (asbāb al-ʿilm). These were first discussed in early Kalām, and were connected to the discussion on prophethood.

2/

This maxim tradition, here attributed to Ali, is classically attributed to the philosophers and has a long and fascinating tradition within Islamic thought:

الملك يبقى مع الكفر ولا يبقى مع الظلم

“Rulership remains with unbelief, and does not remain with injustice.”

A thread 1/

https://twitter.com/MuslimScholars_/status/1215764527884750849

One of the earliest Islamic references to this maxim is by al-Māwardī in his work on political philosophy, Adāb al-dunyā wa al-dīn, in which he links it directly to the classical philosophers (ḥukamā’):

وقال بعض الحكماء الملك يبقى على الكفر ولا يبقى على الظلم.

2/

Ok, lets have a small reflection on “Sharīʿa is comprehensive in ethical cosmology” versus “Sharīʿa covers every aspect of life”

As the Sharīʿa provides both specific and general ritual and ethical guidelines, almost every aspect of life can be ritualized or moralized. 1/ It is not that the Sharīʿa covers every aspect of life from a legal perspective, but it is because of its ethical guidelines that almost every aspect can be brought into its scope. It is therefore specific on a limited amount of life aspects,…2/