Islamic Politics

There is a broad acceptance of the cosmology of tawhid – the singular unified explanation of all existence. Some of them emphasize the use of reason in this process, others the use of tradition.

the Qurʾan finally gave the pagan Arabs the ability to classify some forms of knowledge as more valuable than others, which led to the remarkable scientific and philosophical achievements in the later centuries of Islamic civilization

Islamic Political Theology and the Qurʾan 
between the trends of progressivism and traditionalism is reflected in a tension between reason and tradition. some Muslims gravitate toward reason and argue that human reason should be used in reading and understanding a revealed text. some Muslims gravitate toward reason and argue that human reason should be used in reading and understanding a revealed text. The Qurʾan may be the literal word of God, but there are metaphors that ought to be interpreted as such, and human reason is necessary for this kind of interpretation. Those who emphasize reason tend to allow for greater liberality in the reading and understanding of a text through metaphor and esotericism. On the other hand, many traditionalists are suspicious of human reason, of which they argue that it is limited in its ability to solve problems. In fact many such thinkers describe “reason” as little more than personal opinion. There is also a strong correlation between traditionalism and literalism; since traditionalists are suspicious of reason, they empower the literal word to stand on its own. The Qurʾan is considered by Muslims to be the literal word of God. But how is it understood? Clearly, its author – God,

Let us return to the beginning: during the month of Ramadan, in the year 610, Prophet Muhammad received the first in a series of revelations that, together, constitute the Qurʾan. The Qurʾan’s central theme is the imperative to enjoin justice and do good, while also castigating injustice and wrongdoing. The Qurʾan empha- sizes the fate of humanity in both its secular and its sacred capacities. By secular I mean here the affairs of humans, including the rise and fall of civilizations; by sacred I mean the Qurʾanic references to acts of worship like fasting and prayer. Lastly, the Qurʾan is also a source of law.

what was the nature of that authority and the meaning of the text? 
There are three positions vis-à-vis this question and these positions bear the imprint of our epistemological spectrum. First, rationalists maintain that the divine cannot be understood at all, unless it is rendered through the human. it makes reason into a prerequisite to approaching the divine. The famous Mutazilite Abdul-Jabbar (d. 1025), for instance, argued that one can understand Islamic ethics only through reason.

Second, traditionalists, on the other hand, claim that the imperfection of humanity renders it largely unreliable for the task of conveying the divine; this