zama@midway.uchicago.edu (iftikhar uz zaman) (04/19/91)
In article <1991Apr11.113529.6267@wpi.WPI.EDU> hanan@mcs213k.cs.umr.edu (Hanan Lutfiyya) writes: > One example of what I would consider a stupid, silly ruling >is the Saudi "Islamic scholar" who said that >women should not drive. This "scholar" also ruled that the >earth was the center of the universe. He only changed his mind >after a Saudi astronaut went up in the Space Shuttle. He seems >to have a great deal of influence in Saudi Arabia. Should he >be followed blindly just because he is an Islamic scholar? >Rather people should be able to do some reasoning for themselves. > >Hanan Lutfiyya >(Always a student) >University of Missouri-Rolla I hope everyone will excuse me for this tangent: but it seems that the name of this scholar who believes that the earth is the center of the universe keep being brought up again and again... and everytime this happens I am tempted to clarify: so I am giving in to this temptation. The scholar in question is Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani. This man is a *formidable* scholar of hadith. His knowledge of hadith is absolutely phenomenal: and I think my dissertation would have taken me twice as long to write if it had not been for the work he has done. On the other hand he *does* believe that the earth is at the center of the universe (Hanan's info on this regarding his recanting might be updated). So what are we to make of this? Well, as far as I am concerned, in this age of specialization this phenomenon should not be too hard to understand: when I go to a doctor I go to ask him how to treat a disease--if he has opinions on the carburettor on my car being clogged or clean...well I take it with a grain of salt: then I go to a mechanic. If the mechanic tells me that the doctor is out of his mind, I take that sentence precisely as it is stated--the doctor is wrong about my car...But I do *not* take this to be evidence of the doctor being incompetent in *his* field. Now, Albani does not (to the best of my knowledge), pronounce the earth's being the center of the universe as something which is established by the Quran and the sunna. So his being wrong on this issue does not invalidate his opinion on this issue. I have no intention of studying astronomy from him, so it doesn't bother me when I am using his works for hadith study. There *is* an additional problem with Albani, though. He *does* consider himself a "faqih" (an expert in "jurisprudence"...in understanding and interpreting the *meanings* of the corpus of hadith material which he *actually has* mastered). Here I (and a lot of the people whose knowledge of these matters I respect) think he is overstepping his bounds. Again, this is a matter of opinion and can be argued.... The point of this post though, is to suggest that we try to break down some of these monolothic characterizations of people as "backwards" and "forwards." The "mulla" is a much maligned individual, however, fortunately or unfortunately, he has read the sources a lot more extensively than a lot of us have. Thus, until we do the reading ourselves, one cannot simply "throw the baby out with the bathwater" and think we can dispense with all types of mullas (from Malik, Shafi'i, Ahmad etc. to Ibn Hajar, 'Ayni, etc...to the modern ones like Albani). What we can do is put large question marks where we have questions and learn from them what we can... then, later, perhaps try to investigate the questionable points... Eventually, the investigation of the questions may lead us to throw out everything these "mullas" have told us. But it seems like cultural suicide (taking Islam as a "culture" here) to completely disavow the work of centuries which has gone into the texts of Islam which these people (many of them sincere along with being knowledgeable) have invested.... We do this kind of selective listening to any "expert" in everyday life--why can we not give our religious scholars the same treatment? Is there perhaps a visceral reaction here? A "hatred"? These are just questions: not accusations. Wassalam. Iftikhar