{"id":328,"date":"2006-12-27T03:15:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-27T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2006-12-27T03:15:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-27T11:15:00","slug":"jawdat-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/jawdat-said\/","title":{"rendered":"Jawdat Said"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>In these \u201choly\u201d-days when peace is the big word \u2014 though the news of Xtian Ethiopia attacking Islamic Somalia, with George W Bush\u2019s (or George W Douche, as my son says) backing, certainly is bad news \u2014 it may be useful to point to some of the more peaceful traditions in the religion this country has been demonizing sicne 9\/11, i.e. Islam. (Personally I have no truck with any established religion, but that\u2019s not the question now.) Below a recent piece from Magharebia News<\/a>, (which seems to have reprinted it from the Qantara.de<\/a> site) \u2014 a basic journalistic evaluation of one of the important 20C Islamic thinkers, Jawdat Said<\/span>.<\/div>\n

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Islam as a violence-free religion<\/span><\/h1>\n

24\/12\/2006<\/p>\n

Philosopher Jawdat Said has been propagating a vision of Islam free of violence for the past 40 years. His books have been widely read and discussed by Islamic activists in the Arab world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Published in 1966, the book \u201cThe Doctrine of the First Son of Adam: The Problem of Violence in the Islamic World\u201d was the first publication in the modern Islamic movement to present a concept of non-violence. Now in its fifth edition, the book is still available today. <\/p>\n

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It was written by Jawdat Said, born in Syria in 1931, who moved to Egypt at a young age to study the Arabic language at Azhar University. While there, he took an active part in the cultural life of Egypt. He was also closely connected to the Islamic movement of that period. <\/p>\n

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Even then, Said warned against the negative effects of the violence being carried out by the Islamic movement in Egypt, and wrote his book as a direct response to the writings of Sayyid Qutb, who died in 1966 and is considered the father of militant Islam. <\/p>\n

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Other intellectuals of the Islamic world also turned against Qutb at the time, including for example Hasan al-Hudaybi, the leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. <\/p>\n

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In the early 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria began \u2013 in spite of Said\u2019s warnings \u2013 to rebel against the government of Hafez al-Asad. However, the revolt was put down with much bloodshed, and ended in 1982 with a massacre in the city of Hama. <\/p>\n

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Following this defeat, the movement began seriously entertaining the idea of demilitarization. At the time, the writings of Jawdat Said became increasingly popular in Islamic activist circles. <\/p>\n

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Said\u2019s concept of non-violence <\/b><\/p>\n

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In the introduction to his book \u201cThe Doctrine of the First Son of Adam,\u201d Jawdat Said places himself in the tradition of Islamic reformers such as Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (who died in 1902) and Muhammad Iqbal (who died in 1938), the mystic poet and philosopher from India. <\/p>\n

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Said also stressed the importance of the Algerian writer Malik bin-Nabi (who died in 1973) and his book, \u201cThe Conditions of Renaissance.\u201d <\/p>\n

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What these philosophers have in common is an emphasis on reformation within Islamic societies. They see the problems in their societies as the result more of unfortunate internal developments than of colonial intervention. <\/p>\n

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Said\u2019s works about non-violence are part of a series of writings that deal with personal and societal problems, and that serve as a guidepost for Islamic activists. They primarily address Islamic youth, and present an Islamic way of life that eschews violence. <\/p>\n

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Non-violence as a divine commandment <\/b><\/p>\n

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Said sees this approach as grounded in the Qur\u2019an. In Sure 5, verses 27\u201331, one can read how the \u201cGod-fearing Abel\u201d even declined to defend himself against his brother, although in the end, Cain murdered him. <\/p>\n

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Said sees this is a quest of mankind, to react \u201clike Adam\u2019s firstborn son, who did not defend himself against the attacks of his brother.\u201d The non-violence exhibited by Adam\u2019s son represents, in Said\u2019s view, \u201ca position to be aspired to by all mankind, and adhering to it is one of God\u2019s commandments.\u201d <\/p>\n

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In addition, Said refers to the stories of the various different prophets in the Qur\u2019an and points out that the only charges they were accused of was their belief in the one God of creation. None of them, however, attempted to spread his ideas by means of violence. <\/p>\n

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Said sees this as a clear indication that the practice of violence is incompatible with the core faith of the Qur\u2019an. But how does Said explain the other verses of Qur\u2019an that call the faithful to battle? <\/p>\n

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Different interpretations of the Qur\u2019an <\/b><\/p>\n

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According to Said\u2019s view, the Qur\u2019an specifies two prerequisites for a legitimate war. First, war may only be declared if the opponent defies the fundamental Qur\u2019anic principle of \u201cno coercion of religion,\u201d i.e. if the enemy violates the principle of \u201cfreedom of opinion.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Second, the nation that declares war must itself adhere to this principle. <\/p>\n

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In his 1988 book \u201cRead! For The Lord Your God is Benevolent,\u201d Said supports his view of an Islam free of violence by developing an important approach to the interpretation of the Qur\u2019an. <\/p>\n

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Said points out that the various different interpretations of the text of the Qur\u2019an presented a challenge even for the early followers of the Prophet Mohammad. <\/p>\n

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He quotes the fourth Caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, who in a disagreement with his opponents (the Kharijites) demanded disregarding the texts because each group had its own way of interpreting them. Instead, practical aspects should be discussed in an effort to reach a satisfying conclusion. <\/p>\n

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Said concludes from this that the Qur\u2019an challenges people to search for truth in the real world and not in the texts of the Qur\u2019an. The call to \u201cwander the earth\u201d is repeated 13 times in the Qur\u2019an. Said thus concludes that this is a par
\nt of the divine revelation: to search for knowledge about the world, its history and its societies. Therein lies for him the \u201cprofound meaning and wonder of the Qur\u2019an.\u201d <\/p>\n

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New interpretations of the Qur\u2019an <\/b> <\/p>\n

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The demand to \u201cwander\u201d is coupled with the demand to read. After all, \u201cRead!\u201d is the first word that was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Said interprets this as a call to become familiar with the history of the human experience, which is primarily accessible through reading. <\/p>\n

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Supporting his view with approaches from the Islamic tradition, Said thus paves the way for a new interpretation of the Qur\u2019an that no longer emphasises the analysis of the sacred texts but rather places human experience in the forefront. <\/p>\n

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For this reason, Said\u2019s interpretations were sharply attacked by conservative thinkers. One of them, Adel al-Tal, wrote a book in 1995 in which he accused Said of being a \u201cmaterialist in an Islamic disguise.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Conflict between science and violence <\/b><\/p>\n

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But to this day, Said has remained true to the text of the Qur\u2019an. He quotes the Qur\u2019an often to support his view of non-violence. <\/p>\n

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The passage he quotes most often is Sure 2, verses 30-33, in which the angels protest God\u2019s decision to put a successor on earth. Their argument: This representative will do nothing but create trouble and spill blood. In response, God teaches Adam \u201call things and their names.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Said understands this passage as a symbolic dispute between science and violence. In the language of the verses of the Qur\u2019an, this means a dispute between \u201cnaming names\u201d and \u201ccreating trouble and spilling blood.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Mankind, Said concludes, should and can use its God-given ability to reason to achieve peace on earth. <\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Qantara.de 2006<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these \u201choly\u201d-days when peace is the big word \u2014 though the news of Xtian Ethiopia attacking Islamic Somalia, with George W Bush\u2019s (or George W Douche, as my son says) backing, certainly is...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}