Baber Johansen
Baber Johansen Baber Johansen
16 This dissent does not diminish the classificatory aspect of the term qurba as a quality that is common to acts that bring the actors closer to God. Ibn ÝAqÐl, the leading Íanbalī scholar in Baghdad at the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth century, 57 discusses the notion of qurba and taqarrub in the same vein. Much like ShÐrÁzÐ, he divides the Prophet’s acts in those that have a qurba-function and those that do not. Similarly, he subdivides the acts that bring closer to God into three groups: acts in response to God’s command, that receive their meaning from the obligatory or recommended character of the command; acts that explain polysemous texts of the revelation and that follow the legal effect of the explained text; and finally, acts in which the Prophet acts on his own (mubtadiÞan). He enumerates the same three dissenting opinions about the character of these acts as does ShÐrÁzÐ. 58 Ibn ÝAqÐl sees the main reason for God’s commands in the effort to come closer to God. He states: Truly, God [...] only obliges his obligor to perform an act with the purpose that he perform this act in a way that is intended to [serve] the coming closer to Him and the obedience to Him (inna llÁha [...] innamÁ kallafa man kallafahu fiÝlan an yaqaÞa dhÁlika l- fiÝlu minhu ÝalÁ wajhi l-taqarrub ilayhi wa l-ÔÁÝa lahu). He obliges him to avoid an act in order that this avoidance may be enacted by him with the purpose of coming closer to God. In other words, God’s commands oblige only people who are in full possession of their mental faculties. God addresses them to legally capacitated persons who understand that they should fulfil God’s commands because they aspire to come closer to God through their acts. 59 In the eleventh and the twelfth centuries, the notion that the aim of legal obligations is to bring believers closer to God was generally accepted by the leading Sunnī jurists. The idea that cultic acts bring the believer closer to God can be used like a formula that is known by all and is uncontested. The Transoxanian jurist SarakhsÐ (d. 1090) uses the
17 introduction to his “Book on Fasting” to define the conditions and the purpose of fasting in the following words: According to the Law, it [fasting] is a term for a specific form of abstention, the refraining from the satisfaction of the two desires, the desire of the stomach and the desire of sex, by a specific person who has to be Muslim, pure from menstruation and bleedings, at a specific time, from the breaking of dawn until the sunset, in a specific way: it has to be [performed] with the purpose of coming closer to God (ÝalÁ qaÒdi l-taqarrub). 60 He specifies the purpose of coming closer to God through fasting as follows: The coming closer to God (al-taqarrub) through fasting [resides in] the effort (mujÁhada) of the soul and this effort [takes place] under two aspects: the first one is the preventing of the soul from eating at the time of desire and the second one [is] the staying awake when the soul loves to sleep. To this effort belongs the discipline of the tongue and the glorification of the things that God has glorified. 61 "Coming closer to God" thus implies for SarakhsÐ the mental effort to make the right choice and to respect the legal limits within which this choice has to be realized. He underlines this link between qurba and human choice: In the obligation to fast, the meaning of the performance that brings closer to God (qurba) is realized because the [human] servant [of God] retains choice in it (wa-maÝna l-qurbati fÐ aÒli l- Òawmi yataÎaqqaqu li-baqÁÞi l-ikhtiyÁri li l-Ýabd fÐh). Therefore, it [the qurba] is not realized in the way of fasting (fi l-Òifa), because the human being has no choice concerning it (idh lÁ ikhtiyÁra lahu fÐhÁ). It is unimaginable that he [the believer who performs the fasting] replace this way of fasting in another way in this time [the month of RamaÃÁn]. 62
- Page 1 and 2: The Changing Limits of Contingency
- Page 3: Abstract This paper attempts to ana
- Page 6 and 7: 2 determined the universe so as to
- Page 8 and 9: 4 allowed the theologians to define
- Page 10 and 11: 6 military slaves of their guards;
- Page 12 and 13: 8 Secondly, the impersonal characte
- Page 14 and 15: 10 consequences in both acts of wor
- Page 16 and 17: 12 1990s. The difference between th
- Page 18 and 19: 14 Al-BÁjÐ (1012-1081), a MÁlik
- Page 22 and 23: 18 In other words, human beings hav
- Page 24 and 25: 20 common ground for social moralit
- Page 26 and 27: 22 most of them are acts of charity
- Page 28 and 29: 24 It is not hidden to anyone that
- Page 30 and 31: 26 The rational reconstruction of t
- Page 32 and 33: 28 between the contingent world and
- Page 34 and 35: 30 Ibn ÝAqÐl answers this claim o
- Page 36 and 37: 32 law books do not have the same d
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- Page 40 and 41: 36 irrational actor accumulated cul
- Page 42 and 43: 38 God. The actor’s contingent de
- Page 44 and 45: 40 use their legal reasoning (ijtih
- Page 46 and 47: 42 underline the contingency of the
- Page 48 and 49: 44 Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
- Page 50 and 51: 46 both," p. 475, no 1319. In other
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- Page 54 and 55: 50 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 SarakhsÐ,
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17<br />
introduction to his “Book on Fasting” to define the conditions and the<br />
purpose of fasting in the following words:<br />
According to the Law, it [fasting] is a term for a specific form of<br />
abstention, the refraining from the satisfaction of the two desires,<br />
the desire of the stomach and the desire of sex, by a specific<br />
person who has to be Muslim, pure from menstruation and<br />
bleedings, at a specific time, from the breaking of dawn until the<br />
sunset, in a specific way: it has to be [performed] with the<br />
purpose of coming closer to God (ÝalÁ qaÒdi l-taqarrub). 60<br />
He specifies the purpose of coming closer to God through fasting as<br />
follows:<br />
The coming closer to God (al-taqarrub) through fasting [resides<br />
in] the effort (mujÁhada) of the soul and this effort [takes place]<br />
under two aspects: the first one is the preventing of the soul from<br />
eating at the time of desire and the second one [is] the staying<br />
awake when the soul loves to sleep. To this effort belongs the<br />
discipline of the tongue and the glorification of the things that<br />
God has glorified. 61<br />
"Coming closer to God" thus implies for SarakhsÐ the mental effort to<br />
make the right choice and to respect the legal limits within which this<br />
choice has to be realized. He underlines this link between qurba and<br />
human choice:<br />
In the obligation to fast, the meaning of the performance that<br />
brings closer to God (qurba) is realized because the [human]<br />
servant [of God] retains choice in it (wa-maÝna l-qurbati fÐ aÒli l-<br />
Òawmi yataÎaqqaqu li-baqÁÞi l-ikhtiyÁri li l-Ýabd fÐh). Therefore, it<br />
[the qurba] is not realized in the way of fasting (fi l-Òifa), because<br />
the human being has no choice concerning it (idh lÁ ikhtiyÁra<br />
lahu fÐhÁ). It is unimaginable that he [the believer who performs<br />
the fasting] replace this way of fasting in another way in this time<br />
[the month of RamaÃÁn]. 62
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