Concept of Revitalization (tajdid) in Islam
By Dr. Usman Muhammad Bugaje Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, ‘The Tradition of Tajdid in Western Sudan: 900 -1900 AD”“Man”, the noted Tunisian socialist Ibn Khaldun cautions in his Muqaddima, "should not trust the suggestion that his minds makes, that it is able to comprehend all existing things and their causes and to know all the details of existence. Such a suggestion of the mind" he warns," should be dismissed as stupid. It should be known” he contends, “that every person with perception has the superficial impression that the whole of existence is comprised by his perceptions, and that it does not extend beyond (the realm of perceptions), the matter", he enjoins, “is different in fact. The truth lies beyond that.” Obviously this caution is not a rejection of human intellect or reason nor is it meant to degrade its status or role in human life. Rather it is meant to tame it, to curtail that inherent tendency to arrogate to itself powers it does not possess, to keep it within the bounds of its capabilities, for indeed reason serves man best when it recognizes its limits and remain within its pale.
This caution has become necessary because the human mind has inherently been agitated by the urge to comprehend the ultimate reality in life, the urge to peep across this life hemmed in by space and time, and find out our ultimate destiny. It has been confronted by such questions as: What is the meaning and goal of life? What is the nature and purpose of the universe? What is the place and role of man in this Universe? Only the human mind rages with such questions, and properly so", says Garaudy, "for only man cannot live without raising them.” "The search for reality" notes Siddiqui –author of "Prophethood in Islam, "is not thus, something which is a matter of option or choice for the, human mind. You cannot point to a single human action", he contends, "which can be comprehended without seeing its relevance to the world of reality. Despite all changes and disguises - of myth, legend and symbol - the fact remains", Siddiqui adds, “that the consciousness of human race has always been grappling with Reality." Besieged as the human mind inescapably is by such fundamental and indeed vexing questions, the answers of which appear to lie beyond the purview of his intellect, the import of the caution sounded by Ibn Khaldun can clearly be seen.
The significance of these questions which vex human mind, to be sure, goes very much beyond polemics. For it is the answers to these fundamental questions which inform the perception of the human mind about the nature and meaning of life, on earth and consequently determine the principles upon which human society is organized and run. Where, for example, human perception is informed entirely and exclusively by modem science and since "Science deals with the "actual", with what is here and now, particularly what can be comprehended with the help of senses, there is inherent in science" Siddiqui asserts, "a natural tendency to assure that man too, like inanimate matter, is a bubble that busts and a vision that fades and, thus, nothing survives after his death.” Therefore not only does human life becomes a meaningless riddle, some would say a cruel joke, but human society built on such premise cannot but be organized and run on sheer expediency devoid of any eternal principles or the sense of accountability and restraint a belief in a life after death engenders, with all the consequences in its trail. Some such obvious consequences will be the tendency for might to be right and for the end to justify the means.
Where however, the meaning of life becomes informed by a religion with a belief in a supreme being who created man and the universe he lives in and to whom man eventually and inescapably returns to render account of his sojourn on earth, the resulting human society will hardly have room for expediency and will certainly be characterized by such restraint and discipline as are engendered by belief in the day of reckoning. In Islam, at least this endeavour of ordering society along its world-view is beyond rhetoric’s, as Professor Gibb had occasion to concede. "The kind of society that a community builds for itself he notes, "depends fundamentally in its belief as to the nature and purpose of the universe and the place of the human soul within it. This is a familiar enough doctrine as reiterated from Christian pulpits week after week. But Islam possibly is the only religion which has constantly aimed to build up society on this principle. The instrument of this purpose was law.” (Modern Trends in Islam 1945: 86-87). Perhaps we can now turn our attention to the Islamic world-view and this law, the Shari’a, through which it finds expression in human society.
In Islam, man and the universe he lives in, are not a result of some accident, far from it, they are a deliberate creation of Allah their Lord and Sustainer. Allah the creator has left man in no doubt about the purpose for which he created him, as well as the universe he was meant to live in. Narrating the whole story of the creation of man in a fairly long passage in the Quran, Allah said:
"Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent <Khalifa> on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not" And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He place them before the angels and said: "Tell Me the nature of these if ye are right." They said: "Glory to Thee: of knowledge we have none, save what Thou has taught us: in truth it is thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom." He said: "O Adam! tell them their nature." When he had told them, God said: Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what you reveal and what you conceal?" And behold We said to the angels: Bow down to Adam;" and they bowed down: not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: he was of those who reject faith. We said: "O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) ye will; but approach not this tree, or you run into harm and transgression." Then did Satan make slip from the (Garden)... We said: "Get ye down all from here; and if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from Me, whosoever follows my guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."' [2:30-38]
This passage, more than any in the Quran, sUmmahrizes the whole story of man on earth and subsumes, in very succinct if sometimes subtle tones, the most fundamental issues in the world-view of Islam. Three such issues are directly relevant to our discussion here: that man is here or earth primarily as Allah's Khalifa (vicegerent); that man's high esteem and choice as khalifa, has to do with man's intrinsic endowment, specifically knowledge and free-will (which tile angels feared could lead to transgression) that Allah promised to send to man Huda (guidance) and that man's only hope lies in following that guidance. We shall now probe a little further into the meaning and implication of man’s responsibility as Allah’s Khalifa on earth.
The word Khalifa has appeared, in various grammatical forms, in eight other places in the Quran (i.e. 6:165; 7:69 and 74; 10:14 and 73; 27:62; 35:39; 38:26). In all these places and forms the word Khalifa has conveyed the meaning of vicegerency10 or heirs/inheritors.11 These meanings are often reinforced by a call to establish justice on earth with a clear sense of accountability and gratitude to Allah. So being Allah’s Khalifa on earth, confers both honour and responsibility on man. An honor because that is the highest status any creation of Allah can ever hope to attain, a responsibility because it places on man the burden of establishing justice on earth and the obligation of rendering full accounts.
The choice of man as Allah’s Khalifa is, as has been noted above, predicated on man’s inherent qualities which precisely made him eligible to shoulder this heavy responsibility (Amanah), which, as the Quran informs us, even the heaven and earth flinched from taking. Foremost of these qualities is knowledge, “the names (or natures) of all things”, in words of the Quran. Muslim scholars have probed deep into and written volumes on the nature of this knowledge. [Different mufassirun (interpreters) have emphasized different aspect of the word khalifa. While al-Tabari collated a variety of views, Ibn Kathir emphasized the inheritance of the earth and Suyuti emphasized the establishment of justice on earth through the shari’a. Building on these, some contemporary mufassirun have stressed further the Khalifa role of man and ventured to spell out conditions of this Khilafa.] Here we shall be content with the fact that this knowledge confers on man a vast capacity to know his lord (ma’rifa) and to know all things sensible and intelligible and discern and understand all phenomena around him ('ilm) - a favour reserved only for mankind. "We have honored the sons of Adam;" the Quran declares, "provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours above a great part of our creation”. Thus this favour enables man to both carry the weight and deliver the goods.
It is both interesting and significant that man, who has been created as a vicegerent on earth and bestowed with those qualities to execute that responsibility, is also endowed with a free-will, the freedom to believe or disbelieve, to obey or disobey. This freedom it should be added is however tempered with an insight built in the soul of man for distinguishing the right from the wrong, the good from the evil. In Allah’s own words: “And a soul and Him who perfected it, And inspired it (with conscience of) what is wrong for it and (What is) right for it. He is indeed successful who causeth it to grow, And he is indeed a failure who stunteth it.” This inherent sense of right and wrong is what makes man a moral being possessed of a conscience which acts as both an inner sight that can visualize the ultimate result of his action and inner voice that warns against evil and urges good. Indeed this freedom, tempered as it is meant to be by man's moral conscience, is essential for the kind of mission man has been assigned on this earth. "The amanah" as al-Attas observed, "implies responsibility to be just to it; and the 'rule' refers not simply to ruling in the socio-political sense, nor to controlling nature in the scientific sense, but more fundamentally, in its encompassing of the concept nature (tabi’ah), it refers to the ruling, and governing, and controlling, and maintenance of man by his self."
"Man's first act of disobedience" lqbal points out, "was also his first act of free choice; and that is why according to the Quranic narration, Adam's first transgression was forgiven. Goodness", Iqbal adds, "is not a matter of compulsion; it is the self’s free surrender to the moral ideal and answers out of a willing cooperation of free egos. A being whose movements are wholly determined like a machine cannot produce goodness. “Freedom", he concludes, "is thus a condition of goodness." (The Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam 1974: 85) Thus man fully equipped, 'is totally free to shape his own history but alone remains responsible for his own destiny. To do good he needs to make efforts which then, and rightly so, qualifies him for the pleasure and the reward of his Lord. If he should choose to do otherwise, it could not be because he had no alternative or the insight to appreciate fully the consequence of his choice, thus justifiably qualifying for the wrath and punishment of his Lord. Above all he is urged by the realization that life on this earth has a sublime purpose, beyond bread and butter, that he has a mission of vicegerency to accomplish in this vast constituency. But what really, perhaps we should now ask, does this vicegerency entail? What precisely is this mission of man? And how is he to go about it?
Here lies the import of the guidance (Huda) which Allah had promised to send to mankind, for these indeed are the very questions these messages sought to answer. In fulfillment of His promise, Allah raised prophets among mankind, starting with Adam himself and sent them with messages explaining to man the meaning and purpose of this life, defining his role in it and showing him how to go about fulfilling this role. These messages were sent to different communities at different epochs in their various languages with each message emphasizing on the peculiarities and needs of that community at that point in time. It must be stressed however, that all these messengers, from Adam, through Nuh, Musa, 'Isa, to the last of them Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him), carried essentially one and the same message. Addressing the last of this chain of messengers, Allah said "Not a Messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by us to him: That there is no God but I; therefore worship and serve Me." [Quran 21:25]
This chain of prophets was necessitated not only by the dynamic nature of human society, always breaking new grounds and creating new needs but also because decline is inherent in human society. With the passage of time, these messages tend to be corrupted or fall in to oblivion, causing the moral and ethical consciousness of the society to be blunt and the society to loose its bearings and begin to decline. Indeed it is in the nature of man to forget and become weak in his resolve [Quran 20:15]. The role of the prophets therefore, to be sure, is not just to deliver the message to their respective communities. The message itself is intended to return the community, to which it was sent, to the straight path, the path of truth, which their Lord and Sustainer wishes them to tread. The prophets in these communities always represent a higher level of ethical, moral and mental consciousness. It is an integral part of their duty therefore to raise their societies’ level of consciousness, sharpen their moral taste, strengthen their resolve, redirect their course until the community reunites with and submits fully to its Lord and Sustainer. In other words the messengers are to deliver their messages and to endeavour to return their communities, as it were, back to Islam.
But why, we must ask, did this chain of messengers terminated with the prophet Sidna Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him)? Has human society after him ceased to be prone to stagnation and decline? Or has man been relieved of his vicegerency? Certainly neither! For human society will continue to be susceptible to degeneration as long as it remains human just as man will continue to be the vicegerent he has been created to be for as long as he remains in this universe. Rather, the fact of the matter, is that human society has over the epochs evolved and developed that one comprehensive message is all mankind needs to accomplish its mission on earth. The closing verse of this message, that took twenty-three years to come down, is as suggestive as it was reassuring. "This day" Allah declared, "have I perfected your religion for you completed my favour upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion’ The birth of Islam" lqbal notes, in his rather eccentric style,
is the birth of inductive intellect In Islam Prophecy reaches its perfection in discovering the need of its own abolition. This involves the keen perception that life cannot for ever be left in leading strings; that in order to achieve full self-consciousness man must finally be thrown back on his own resources. The abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship in Islam, the constant appeal to reason and experience in the Quran, and the emphasis that it lays on Nature and History as sources of Human knowledge, are all different aspects of the same idea of finality. (Iqbal: 126)
The Quran, then, is Allah's complete and final message designed to the end of time. Comprehensive in its scope, literally covering every conceivable aspect of human endeavor, delivered in a language of such immense richness and a style of such astounding uniqueness and subtlety, which continues to unfold its meaning with the passage of time; the Quran represents for man the only dependable and inexhaustible guidance for his life on earth. "Nothing" Allah assured, "have we omitted from the book.” [Quran 6:38] The totality of the life of the prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), the Sunna, complements and further explains the message. What more, Allah has promised to protect the Quran from any form of corruption or adulteration. "We" He declared, "have, without doubt sent down the message; and we shall assuredly guard it (from corruption)” [Quran 15:9]. The prophet on his part assured the Muslims in his farewell address, inter alia, "I am leaving you with the Book of God and the Sunna of His Prophet. If you follow them, you will never go astray. 0 Men harken well to my words.” Thus the stage had been set for man to fend for himself, as it were.
Being the seal of the Prophets, Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him), had an extra responsibility over and above the delivery of the message and serving as the model. It was also his responsibility to ensure that man has indeed imbibed the spirit of fending for himself. When the prophet appointed one of his learned companions, Mu'adh Ibn Jabal, a judge to Yemen, he interviewed him as if to satisfy himself that Mu'adh has a good grasp of his assignment. “According to what shall thou judge?" The Prophet asked Mu'adh. “According to the book of God (i.e. Quran)," replied Mu'adh. "And if thou findest naught therein?" asked the Prophet. "According to the Sunna of the 'prophet of God," replied Mu'adh. "And if thou findest naught therein?" Asked the Prophet again. "Then I will exert (ajtahidu) my self to form my own opinion". And there upon the Prophet said: "Praise be to God Who has guided the messenger of His Prophet to that which pleases His Prophet.”
This incidence goes beyond the Prophet's approval of ijtihad to underline the real significance of his assignment as the seal of the Prophets. That whenever the two principal sources of Islam are silent on an issue the learned among the Muslim community have the permission, indeed the obligation, to exert themselves to come up with a ruling within the frame of Shari’a to keep the community on the path of Islam with the passage of time. As the learned took this responsibility, they also took with it the risibility of returning the Muslim community back to Islam in the event of decadence or deviation. The saying that "The learned (al-Ulama') are the heirs of the Prophets", has not been meant to be only a compliment for the learned, but rather more importantly, it was meant to be implemented to the letter.
For the avoidance of doubt, this responsibility of regenerating the Muslim community and returning it to the path of Islam anew, has been unequivocally bequeathed to individuals within the community in the following declaration of the Prophet, "Certainly Allah will raise for this community (Ummah), at the head of every hundred years, one(s) (man) who will renew (yujaddid) for her, her religion." (Sunan Abi Dawud 1973: 480) Here then is both an admission that the Muslim community after the prophet will indeed go through some stagnation and an assurance that it will certainly be revived and put back on track. As this hadith is central to this subject, we need to analyze it further to clarify its content delineate its message.
The key word here is yujaddid, the present form of the verb jaddada the noun of which is tajdid. The one(s) who undertake tajdid are thus led "mujaddid(un)”. In its purely linguistic sense the word jaddada means renew something. The word in its various grammatical forms has however been used in the Quran and appeared in some ahadith29 of the prophet. It has since then acquired a rather technical meaning. It means returning something anew exactly as it was originally. In the context of this particular hadith, the word mujaddid refers to renewing or better still reviving the application of Islam in the Muslim community. Since the religion of Islam, as contained in its two principal sources, has already been revealed and will remain intact, needing neither addition nor subtraction only interpretation and application, certainly it is the application which with time tends to wane and needs resuscitations. The word tajdid means, therefore, the renewal of the application of Islam in society, revitalizing their community and returning it to the path of Islam anew, as it was originally.
Though the very words jaddada and tajdid have not been used any where in the Quran, the concept of tajdid as well as the roots of the hadith are firmly ingrained in the Quran. The very advent of the Quran, represented the tajdid of previous messages sent through earlier messengers. Likening this tajdid of the Quran to bringing the earth back to life, Allah said, "Has not the time arrived for the believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of God and of the truth which has been revealed (to them) and that they should not become like those to whom was given revelation aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious transgressors. Know ye (all) that God giveth life to the earth after its death! Already have We shown the signs plainly to you, that ye may learn wisdom." [Quran 57:16-7] Turabi has cogently argued that the coming down of messages as well as its frequent remembrance, revitalizes the community very much in the way the rain does to the earth. That these ayat therefore point to the necessity of receiving messages or remembrance thereof in order to forestall the drying of hearts to revitalize the community.
Being the last of these messages, the Quran had to go further to entrench the very culture of tajdid in its message to ensure the continuity of this tradition. By choosing to start its message with the command to "Read: In the name of thy Lord Who created. Create man from a clot", and proceeding to repeat "Read: And thy Lord is the most bounteous. Who teacheth by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not” [Quran 96:1-5], the Quran was proclaiming an era of learning, encouraging the spirit of inquiry and closing the door of blind imitation (taqlid). In subsequent revelations, the Quran made its position very clear, censuring the blind followership of fore fathers, [Quran 2:170] insisting that claims are substantiated - "Have you any proof or knowledge to substantiate this claim of yours?" [Quran 27:64], and cautioning men not to follow that of which they have no certain knowledge; the hearing, the sight, and the mind (as faculties of knowledge) are responsible." [Quran 17:36] The Quran in numerous passages encouraged critical observation (e.g., Quran 50:6-8; 67:3-4) and reflection and, as if astonished by the sway of taqlid and irrationality, kept asking the Question, will they not reason (afla ya' qilun)" (e.g., Quran, 36:68; 39) The fact that in course of their long history Muslims have become oblivious of this reality and went back into taqlid, with the Ahl al- Sunna closing the door of ijtihad, does not affect this reality which remains in the Quran as fresh as ever. Indeed the Muslims will have to discover that, “the Quranic condemnation of taqlid touches all kinds of conservatism including Muslim conservatism; the desideratum, being that every faith, and pre-eminently Islam, should be held by conviction and not by convention, that conviction is always personal and requires constant renewal” (Faruqi: 316).
In the Quran, the first step towards tajdid seems to be to pre-empt stagnation by constant renewal and strengthening of Iman. The Prophet had informed us that "certainly Iman (faith) wears out inside one of you just like cloth, so ask Allah to renew your the Iman, in your hearts." It is in this light that Turabi perceived the significance of those Ayat of the Quran which all on those who believe to believe again, those who do good deeds to do again and again, those who fear God to fear Him again.41 When men ignore such appeals, as they often do, and therefore fail to forestall stagnation, then, the Quran assures us, Allah Himself causes a party of the faithful to rise up to the challenge so that the agents of corruption and injustice do not ultimately have their way. In the words of the Quran”… “And did not God check one set of people by means of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief: but God is full of bounty to all the worlds" [Quran 2:251]. In another place a similar aya ended with "... God will certainly, aid those who aid His (cause); - for verily God is Full of Strength, Exalted in Mighty” [Quran 22:40]. It is significant that al-Suyuti cited the hadith on tajdid to explain this aya of the Quran in his tafsir.
Renewal of Din or revitalization of the Muslim community, it must be explained further, means the restoration of the Islamic order in that society. Holistic in its approach, comprehensive in its nature, the Islamic order neither admits of any spiritual-mundane dichotomy, nor does it leave any aspect of human endeavor outside its purview. The restoration of this order must therefore involve every facet of society, the intellectual and spiritual as well as the socio-economic and political aspects of the society. This Islamic order is symbolized by the supremacy of the Sharia. For the latter is the embodiment of the former.
The Shari’a is the instrument through which the Islamic belief and world-view find expression in the every day life of the Muslim community. The immediate aim of the Shari’a is to protect the human conscience, life, property, honour and lineage. In so doing the Shari’a guarantees justice for the inhabitants of the universe, Muslims and non-Muslims, humans and non-humans, and creates conducive conditions for the realization of man's mission on earth. The Shari’a essentially consists of some eternal principles contained in the Quran and Sunna, leaving a vast scope for human thoughts and ingenuity. While the "eternal gives us a foot hold in a world of perpetual the vast scope allows the Sharia to comfortably accommodate the dynamics of human society and survive the vagaries of time. It is thus a system designed for all times and situations leaving practically nothing out of its purview.
"The Shari’a", observes Ibrahim Sulaiman, "is a world system. It anticipates from the very beginning the gradual transformation of the world into a global village. Although its first and primary constituency is the Muslim Ummah because it is the Ummah that voluntarily declares its obedience to its dictates, the Shari’a always addresses mankind as a whole and appeals to its conscience as a single entity. The scholar of the Shari’a", Ibrahim adds, "is universal scholar, who is concerned primarily, of course, with the specific problems of the Ummah, but also with the wider problems of the world."45 It is the responsibility of the Muslim jurists (fuqaha'), of every age and place, to derive the details of the Shari’a (fiqh) from the general principles in the Quran and Sunna as the needs and circumstances may require. While these details (fiqh) are bound to become obsolete with time, principles of the Shari’a live on as the eternal source of law and guidance for mankind.
The process of deriving the details from the general principles, especially as new issues arise, involves ijtihad, the self exertion to arrive at a ruling or position acceptable to the principles of the Sharia. Ijtihad, as we have seen earlier, has been practiced from the days of the Prophet. After prophet the practice of ijtihad grew tremendously, not only because the prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) was no longer there to be referred to but also because the Muslim community was becoming complex as it expanded and had to meet the challenge of time. By the end of the second century after the Hijra a whole science of jurisprudence had been developed and the nucleus of the different schools of law (Madhahib), reflecting the varying nuances of Muslim jurists, had taken shape.
This trend continued for the next two centuries during which Islamic jurisprudence became sophisticated, eliciting copious flow of literature, with jurists developing varying views, and the qualification of those who could exercise ijtihad raised to unprecedented levels. In the fourth century however, the Sunni scholars, for reasons beyond the scope of this chapter, closed the door of ijtihad and encouraged the imitation (taqlid) of earlier jurists. As taqlid gained ascendancy, the Sharia, the life vein of the community, lost its dynamism and the Muslim community gradually began to stagnate. The restoration of ijtihad, which in turn is the very soul of the Shari’a, is thus an essential step to the regeneration of the Muslim community. There may be an occasion to say more on this later, meanwhile we shall return to the hadith for more light on Tajdid.
The word yub'ath, the present form of the verb ba'atha, meaning to raise, used in the hadith50 may yet throw further light on this key hadith on tajdid. The same word has been used in the Quran in reference to the prophets raised. This obviously is not to equate the mujaddid with the prophet nor does it mean that the mujaddid is directly appointed in the way Prophet is. But it certainly suggests a relationship of a kind: a relationship of continuity of role; a sharing in the divine blessing. The mujaddid to be sure, does not receive any divine revelation, this has ceased with the termination of Prophethood. The mujaddid in fact receives no more what each and every Muslim receives: the various calls in the Quran and Sunna to search for Knowledge, live according to the Shari’a, command right and forbid the wrong, and giving his property and when necessary his life to ensure the supremacy of Kalimat Allah - the word of Allah. The mujaddid is a mujaddid because his efforts in this respect excelled that of and brings about the desired transformation of society. This action seems pertinent in order to demystify the mujaddid, portray his human essence with all its contingencies, while not denying his endeavour divine blessing it rightly deserves.
Another word of particular interest is the Arabic Pronoun “man”, meaning “who”. In the Arabic construction man can mean both singular and plural, conveying the meaning that the mujaddid can be one person or several other persons. Many Muslim scholars like Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Asakir, and al-Suyuti have tended to see the mujaddid as a single person often peerless in his time and of course exceptional in his contributions. This type of perception tends to cast the mujaddid into the mould of the Prophets, sprinkling, as it often does, his personality with a tinge of super humanness. More recently, however, some scholars see the mujaddid made up of a group of several individuals. This interpretation tends to emphasize the human essence of the mujaddid and see tajdid more as a team work than that of an individual.
There is in the hadith this reference to 'the head of every one hundred years' or a century. Here again many Muslim scholars have taken the statement literally and consequently laboured to identify the mujaddidun of every century, ending up some times with a contrived Islamic history. But the human society, complex and dynamic as it is, does not lend itself to such precision. The reference to a century may be no more than an indication of a period of time after which a Muslim community or any human society for that matter may require revitalization. Ibn Khaldun's theory of rise and fall of civilizations, which takes about four generations, may give credence to such interpretation. The message of the hadith in this respect may simply be that tajdid will occur frequent enough to ensure that Muslim community remains extant and generally on course. With the growing number of the faithful and their increasing territorial spread and complexity, tajdid can easily be seen to warrant more than one mujaddid in more than one epoch.
Perhaps we should now look at the views of some of the leading Muslims scholars on tajdid. The early Muslim scholars, as noted earlier, became tempted into identifying the mujaddid of every century. They carried out this self-assigned job with both care and passion, and it soon became a norm among scholars after them. The fast growth of the Dar al-Islam in territory and complexity never appeared to have discouraged them. Predictably, however, they could not cope, but in the criteria they drew, we can see their, and therefore enrich our, understanding of tajdid. We shall draw mainly from al-Suyuti's work on tajdid in which he sampled the views of many scholars before giving his. Suyuti writes:
The Shaykh Afif al-Din al-Yafi'l said in al-Irshad: A group of scholars, among whom was the Hafiz Ibn Askir, said in regard to the hadith ..., that God sends to this community at the end of every one-hundred years one who regenerates the matter of its religion that at the head of the first (one -hundred years) was Umar ibn 'Abd al-Aziz, and at the second was the Imam Shafi'i and at the head of the third (hundred years) was the Imam Abul-Hassan al-Ash'ari and at the head of the fourth (hundred years) was Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, and at the head of the fifth (hundred years) was Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. This (last designation) was because of the many wonders found in his works and his plunging into the seas of learning.
Another group of scholars have a different list,
The hafiz al-Dhahabi reported that the one sent at the head of the six century was the hafiz 'Abd al-Ghani…. It has come to me some of the Ulama' maintained that in the six century it was the Shaykh Muhy al-Din al-Nawawi and in the fifth century before it was Shaykh Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi.
Ibn al-Athir clarifies this apparent confusion and seems to offer a way out, it may be worth quoting at some length:
Every scholar in his own day differed in his interpretation of this tradition, and each one indicated the person who renewed for the people their religion at the head of each 100 years, and each one proponent favoured his own law school ... Some of the Ulama' came to (the conclusion) that the most fitting would be to interpret the tradition in a general sense, for the saying of the Prophet (on him be blessing and peace) was that 'God sends to this community at the head of every 100 years one who regenerates its religion for it". This saying of his does not necessarily mean that it should be only one who is sent at the head of each century but rather it may be one or it may be more than one. For even though the community derives general benefit in matters of religion from jurists, their benefit through others is never the less (equally) great; for example, those who govern the community, the traditionists, the reciters, the admonishers and those who belong to the various class of ascetics. One person gives benefit in an area which others do not give benefit in. The root of preserving religion is the preservation of the political statutes, the spread of justice and mutual fairness through which (the shedding of) blood is averted, and the ennoblement of the laws of the Shari'a to be upheld. This is the task of those who govern. Similarly, the traditionist are beneficial (in giving) religious admonitions and exhorting people their perseverance in piety and indifference to the world. And each individual gives benefit in a way different from the others. It is better and more fitting that this should be an indication of occurrence of a group of great and celebrated men at the head of every 100 years who renew for people their religion and preserve it for them in the various regions of the earth."
This rather long but obviously useful passage clarifies a lot of the confusion about what constitutes tajdid among Muslim scholars while at the same time offering a more comprehensive and dynamic understanding of tajdid. First it explains, without necessarily justifying, the variety of criteria and therefore list of mujaddidun among some Muslim scholars. The presence, as Ibn al-Athir sought to explain, is often due to environmental orientation or parochial proclivity among some scholars or sometimes sheer partisanship, the tendency for each to promote the Shaykh of his Madhhab or his hero.
lbn al-Athir thought that this was unnecessary, for, he believes, the hadith on tajdid had already anticipated the growth of the Ummah and the spread and development of knowledge into various disciplines and specializations. Thus different parts of the Ummah may have different needs for their regeneration. One community may require a Sufi (an ascetic), another may need a mujtahid, another a mujahid, yet another may require a combination of all the three for its regeneration. While admitting such variations within the Ummahh, for the purpose of tajdid, there are certain fundamental elements, "the root of preserving religion", he calls them, which are common in each and every case. These, Ibn al-Athir says, are the political statutes, spread of justice, and upholding of the Shari’a. In other words, Ibn al-Athir is saying what ever the peculiarities of the Community might be a process of tajdid must necessarily involve, ultimately, the establishment of sound political statutes, the spread of justice, and the upholding of the Shari’a. Because, as he would argue, these are the roots of preservation of religion.
It is interesting that centuries after Ibn al-Athir had expounded his views, some of the factors he had identified as responsible for the varying views and criteria of tajdid among scholars, continued to play their role. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti lived in the serenity of Cairo of late 15th century Mamluk Egypt while Mohammed Ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Maghili in the turbulent Tuwat (in southern Saharan Algeria) of late 15th century and later moved to West Africa. For Suyuti the mujaddid's main thrust is the spread of knowledge, as he says:
"It is not enough that his task be confined to one country or region, but rather his knowledge must spread to the horizons and be conveyed to the (various) regions, so that his regeneration of the religion be all-encompassing and the benefit 0f his knowledge be felt in (all) the quarters of Islam..."
With al-Maghili, however, the stress is different, he says:
Thus it is related that at the beginning of every century God sends men a scholar who regenerates their religion for them. There is no doubt that the conduct of this scholar in every century is enjoining the right and forbidding what is wrong, and setting aright people's affairs, establishing justice among them and supporting truth against falsehood and the oppressed against the oppressor, will be in contrast to the conduct of the scholars of his age. For this reason he will be an odd man out ... Then will it be plain and clear that he is one of the reformers (al-muslihun). (Hunwick 1985: 66-7)
These two views says as much about tajdid as about the two personalities and their environments. We shall examine these views later in the appropriate chapter. It will suffice here to note that both views fit in comfortably within Ibn al-Athir's comprehensive perspective and can in fact be complementary. For while an all-encompassing scholarship is an essential requisite of tajdid, to bring about tajdid, this scholarship must not be for its own sake, rather it must be for the sake of the ultimate goal in tajdid, reform or better still islah.60 To see this relationship between scholarship and islah, more clearly, we need to look at the process of tajdid a little more closely.
Tajdid, revitalization or regeneration, presupposes stagnation or degeneration, which is usually characterized by fasad (corruption) and zulm (injustice) in the absence of the proper application of the Shari’a. This improper application of the Shari’a may be as a result of the refusal of those in authority to allow the Shari’a full reins or because taqlid has taken the better part of the Shari’a and with little or no ijtihad the Shari’a has lost its vitality and dynamism. The development and spread of knowledge is a necessary step in restoring the vitality of the Shari’a and awakening Muslims both the leaders and the led, to their responsibilities. The resulting awareness kindles in the hearts of Muslims a yearning for the ideal, motivating some of them to call for and work towards change. Indeed "Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts” [Quran 13:11].
This yearning for truth and justice, which can also be brought about or accentuated by the spread of tyranny, injustice and deprivation, renders the Muslims easy to rally around and mobilize for change. The objective of this change, however, is not the over throw of some regime, though this may be necessary, but islah - the reordering of society along Islamic lines, in other words, the restoration of the Islamic system. For the goal of tajdid is to return the Muslim community to what its name suggests: submitting totally to its Lord and Creator. With its commitment renewed, the supremacy of the Shari’a restored, the community becomes and revitalized, becoming once again what it used to and indeed ought to be.
Ilm, or true knowledge, in Islam, must eventually lead to islah just like no true islah can come about without 'ilm. This intrinsic connection between ilm and islah, which is perhaps to be found only in Islam, has led to the rather obvious conclusion that the mujaddid must be an Alim of some renown. The Image of a scholar in Islam, is that of a potential mujaddid. In his tafsir of the Quranic aya 9:122 the learned Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, has argued that a proper understanding of Islam can come about only through movement and involvement in the affairs of the community such as Jihad. A Muslim scholar, al-Tabari suggests, must therefore venture to travel out not only to see the signs of Allah but also to familiarize himself with the affairs of his community. (Al- Tabari, Jami al-Bayan, vol.11, p.66-71)
Sayyid- Qutb, building on al-Tabari's argument in his Fi Zilal al – Quran carried the point further, arguing rather cogently, that Islamic scholarship is not to be found in the serenity of the ivory tower but in the ruffles and realities of the daily life of the community. To Sayyid Qutb a scholar who is not involved in the struggle to establish the Islamic order cannot even understand the very text he is supposed to be the custodian of, much less, teach it. Suggesting in his characteristic strong style, that the fiqh or teachings of a scholar who acquires his knowledge and lives in the ivory tower, reading what he (Qutb) calls "cold texts" is not even acceptable.64 For Sayyid Qutb, scholarship in Islam is synonymous with activism. A scholar in Islam cannot stay aloof from his community he must fully identify with its problems as well as its aspirations. He must symbolize the conscience of the community warning it when it goes astray and setting its affairs right when they go wrong, with out, to use a Quranic expression, "the fear of the blame of a blamer". This is precisely what makes the scholar a potential mujaddid.
This rather strong position on Islamic scholarship is not peculiar to Sayyid Qutb. Many Muslim scholars before him have expressed similar views in various ways with varying ardour. In many part of the Muslim world, this image of the Alim ymbolizing the Islamic just order and a protector of people against the unjust behavior of those in power became the very criterion by which Ulama came to be judged. Those scholars who fail to measure to these standards, especially those that are seen to have betrayed these expectations, came to be to be called names by those who believe that they could have done better. Names such as Ulama' al-su' (venal scholars), ulama al-Dunya (worldly scholars), and Ulama' al-Sultan (court scholars) are common charges the ulama of the Muslimc world used.
The alim generally, the mujaddid particular, endeavors to walk in the shadow of the prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). He ardently tries to follow the prophet's Sunna in every thing he does particularly in his struggle for Tajdid. He draws his inspiration from the sirah of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), the struggle of the prophet and his sahaba (companions) and the Islamic state they founded in Medina become both the Model and the standard by which he assesses his own efforts. Major events in the Sirah of the prophet like the Hijrah, the Sulh of al-Hudaybiya, the major battles like Badr, Uhud, Hunyn, Tabuk, often find echoes in the struggle for Tajdid. The mujaddid is fully aware that he can never reach the perfection of his model, he only seeks to approximate it as much as possible, content with being just a degree below it - a position the prophet has promised him. For as Hassan al-Basri narrated, Allah's Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him) said: “He whom death overtakes while he is engaged in acquiring knowledge with a view to reviving Islam with the help of it, there will be one degree between him and the Prophets in Paradise."
The mujaddid, to be sure, is not out to create some past scenario in the history of the Ummah. Rather, he is out to reapply the principles of Islam in his contemporary context so that his community lives and symbolizes those ideals of Islam. To do this he needs to anchor himself fully in the prophetic model to avoid being carried away by his quest for justice to commit excesses or falling prey to the gurur (lure) of the worldly life. So that to use some contemporary parlance, to restore justice he needs not play the poor against the rich as in a communist revolution and to develop he does not have to blindly copy some "modern civilization". He sees his success not in terms of the territory he is able to acquire or in terms of the power he is able to wield, but in terms of the approximation to that model community in Madina or its replica some where in Muslim history.
The promise of a mujaddid has given many a Muslim community hope in difficult times. But there is also another promise which the Prophet is reported to have made; the promise of a Mahdi (the guided one) who will come at the end of time and fill the earth with justice as it has been filled 'with injustice’. Even though these ahadith do not appear in the more meticulous books of hadith like the Bukhari and Muslim; and even as some scholars, particularly Ibn Khaldun, have in a painstaking study, casted doubt on these hadith the belief in a Mahdi has historically stirred some turbulence in various Muslim community. Many a flag has been raised in the name of a Mahdi and many a Muslim aspiring for a return to the Islamic order has gone to the battle field. The household of the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him and them), who suffered so much execution in the hands of the tyrant Umayyads and later the Abbasids, have long perceived the return to the just order of Islam through the awaited Mahdi, al-Mahdi al Muntazar. While the belief in the Mahdi may remain controversial, the Mahdi risings in Muslim communities in history clearly point to the yearnings for the ideal and the tajdid potential in the Muslim Ummah.
This tajdid potential is a permanent feature of the Ummah from its inception to the end of time. It is a patent of the Ummah any where any time. This potential may be dampened or heightened by a number of factors but it remains in the community precisely because the ingredients are contained in the Quran and Sunna. The search for knowledge which has been made obligatory for Muslims, both male and female70, the inseparable link between this knowledge and islah, the command to enjoin the right and forbid the wrong the promise for victory and the greatest reward that accrues to this venture, all total up into a formidable, if latent, prospect for tajdid in the Muslim community.
Even in the seemingly westernized Muslim societies of today, this tajdid potential is not lacking. The complexity of our contemporary society may modify the role of the alim-mujaddid, as the very agenda of tajdid and the business of reordering and running a state today require a host of activists, technocrats, professionals and of course Ulama. But the quest for tajdid and the capacity of the Muslim Ummah to respond to this quest is clearly born out by the thriving Islamic movements in many Muslim countries particularly in Iran where the movement succeeded in mobilizing its Muslim population and wresting over power. There is clearly a latent energy for tajdid in every Muslim community, no matter how far it may appear to have strayed away from Islam. This energy can be so latent as to be ignored or under estimated and when activated can astonish indeed confuse many an observer. Our contemporary western scholars and journalist may be a good case in point.
Many western scholars have sought to explain the jihads in the Muslim world attempts at tajdid generally in terms of power struggle or class conflict or some form of craving for the trappings of this worldly life. Of course as humankinds the mujaddidin may have fallen short of their very high standards, but to pick on such failings as an explanation of the whole phenomenon is to miss the whole point. Admittedly for some of these scholars, that is all there is to live for in this world, it is difficult for them to conceive a higher motive in life. So, tajdid is a process of change within the Muslim community which seeks to revitalize the community and return it to the just order of Islam by restoring the vitality and supremacy of the Shari’a. This process, in the Islamic world-view, is the natural successor to Prophethood. While every Muslim individual has a responsibility to partake in this Process, the ulama' within the community understandably shoulder the greater part of this responsibility. This process may involve one or a combination of other endeavours, chief among them being, the search and spread of knowledge, al-amr bi al-ma’ruf wa al-nahy ‘an al-munkar (enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong), jihad, and islah. The intuitions and instincts of Tajdid are inherent in every Muslim community.
© 2008 Dar Sirr