The Origin of Non-Arab Islam Interpretations by Ibn Khaldun

Research on approach and understanding of Islamic History, Sunna and Hadith.
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Arnold Yasin Mol

The Origin of Non-Arab Islam Interpretations by Ibn Khaldun

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Ibn Khaldun, the Muslim philosopher said in his book Al Muqaddimah that non-Arabs, mostly Persians were the ones engaged in scholarly works such as preserving written knowledges including collecting 'hadiths'.

By the way, Al Muqaddimah itself is a very great sociology book. In it for example he explains that Jews seem to be full of deceit and trickery not because they are actually evil, instead it is more because for centuries they have been forced to use them in order to survive constant persecutions therefore those attributes grow in them as a result.

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Table_of_Contents.htm


Most of the scholars in Islam have been non-Arabs (Persians).

It is a remarkable fact that, with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars both in the religious and in the intellectual sciences have been non-Arabs. When a scholar is of Arab origin, he is non-Arab in language and upbringing and has non-Arab teachers. This is so in spite of the fact that Islam is an Arabic religion, and its founder was an Arab.

The reason for it is that at the beginning Islam had no sciences or crafts. That was due to the simple conditions (that prevailed) and the desert attitude. The religious laws, which are the commands and prohibitions of God, were in the breasts of the authorities. They knew their sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah, from information they had received directly from the Lawgiver (Muhammad) himself and from the men around him. The people at that time were Arabs. They did not know anything about scientific instruction or the writing of books and systematic works. There was no incentive or need for that. This was the situation during the time of the men around Muhammad and the men of the second generation. The persons who were concerned with knowing and transmitting the (religious laws) were called "Qur'an readers," that is, people who were able to read the Qur'an and were not illiterate. Illiteracy was general at that time among the men around Muhammad, since they were (Arab) Bedouins. People who knew the Qur'an were at that time called "Qur'an readers" with reference to the fact (that they were literate). They read the Qur'an and the Sunnah, which were transmitted from God, (in order to know the religious laws,) because the religious laws were known only from the (Qur'an) and from the traditions which are mostly explanations of and commentaries upon, the (Qur'an). Muhammad said: "I left among you two things. You will not go astray as long as you hold on to them: the Qur'an and my Sunnah."

By the time of the reign of ar-Rashid, (oral) tradition had become far removed (from its starting point). It was thus necessary to write commentaries on the Qur'an and to fix the traditions in writing, because it was feared that they might be lost. It was also necessary to know the chains of transmitters and to assess their reliability, in order to be able to distinguish sound chains of transmitters from inferior ones. Then, more and more laws concerning actual cases were derived from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Moreover, the (Arabic) language became corrupt, and it was necessary to lay down grammatical rules.

All the religious sciences had (thus) become habits connected with producing and deriving (laws and norms) and with comparison and analogical reasoning. Other, auxiliary sciences became necessary, such as knowledge of the rules of the Arabic language, (knowledge of) the rules that govern the derivation (of laws) and analogical reasoning, and defense of the articles of faith by means of arguments, because a great number of innovations and heresies (had come into existence). All these things developed into sciences with their own habits, requiring instruction (for their acquisition). Thus, they came to fall under the category of crafts.

We have mentioned before that the crafts are cultivated by sedentary people and that of all peoples the Arab (Bedouins) are least familiar with the crafts. Thus, the sciences came to belong to sedentary culture, and the Arabs were not familiar with them or with their cultivation. Now, the (only) sedentary people at that time were non-Arabs and, what amounts to the same thing, the clients and sedentary people who followed the non-Arabs at that time in all matters of sedentary culture, including the crafts and professions. They were most versed in those things, because sedentary culture had been firmly rooted among them from the time of the Persian Empire.

Thus, the founders of grammar were Sibawayh and, after him, al-Farisi and az-Zajjaj. All of them were of nonArab (Persian) descent. They were brought up in the Arabic language and acquired the knowledge of it through their upbringing and through contact with Arabs. They invented the rules of (grammar) and made (grammar) into a discipline (in its own right) for later (generations to use).

Most of the hadith scholars who preserved traditions for the Muslims also were non-Arabs (Persians), or Persian in language and upbringing, because the discipline was widely cultivated in the 'Iraq and the regions beyond. (Furthermore,) all the scholars who worked in the science of the principles of jurisprudence were non-Arabs (Persians), as is well known. The same applies to speculative theologians and to most Qur'an commentators. Only the non-Arabs (Persians) engaged in the task of preserving knowledge and writing systematic scholarly works. Thus, the truth of the following statement by the Prophet becomes apparent: "If scholarship hung suspended at the highest parts of heaven, the Persians would (reach it and) take it."

The Arabs who came into contact with that flourishing sedentary culture and exchanged their Bedouin attitude for it, were diverted from occupying themselves with scholarship and study by their leading position in the 'Abbasid dynasty and the tasks that confronted them in government. They were the men of the dynasty, at once its protectors and the executors of its policy. In addition, at that time, they considered it a contemptible thing to be a scholar, because scholarship is a craft, and political leaders are always con­temptuous of the crafts and professions and everything that leads to them. Thus, they left such things to non-Arabs and persons of mixed Arab and non-Arab parentage (muwallad). The latter cultivated them, and (the Arabs) always considered it their right to cultivate them, as they were their custom (din) and their sciences, and never felt complete contempt for the men learned in them. The final result, (law ever,) was that when the Arabs lost power and the non-Arabs took over, the religious sciences had no place with the men in power, because the latter had no relations with (scholarship). Scholars were viewed with contempt, because the (men in power) saw that (scholars) had no contact with them and were occupying themselves with things that were of no interest to the (men in power) in governmental and political matters, as we mentioned in connection with the religious ranks. The fact established here is the reason why (all) scholars in the religious sciences, or most of them, are nonArabs.

The intellectual sciences, as well, made their appearance in Islam only after scholars and authors had become a distinct group of people and all scholarship had become a craft. (The intellectual sciences) were then the special preserve of non-Arabs, left alone by the Arabs, who did not cultivate them. They were cultivated only by Arabicized non-Arabs (Persians) as was the case with all the crafts, as we stated at the beginning.

This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and the Persian countries, the 'Iraq, Khurasan, and Transoxania, retained their sedentary culture. But when those cities fell into ruins, sedentary culture, which God has devised for the attainment of sciences and crafts, disappeared from them. Along with it, scholarship altogether disappeared from among the non-Arabs (Persians), who were (now) engulfed by the desert attitude. Scholarship was restricted to cities with an abundant sedentary culture. Today, no (city) has a more abundant sedentary culture than Cairo (Egypt). It is the mother of the world, the great center (Iwan) of Islam, and the mainspring of the sciences and the crafts.

Some sedentary culture has also survived in Transoxania, because the dynasty there provides some sedentary culture. Therefore, they have there a certain number of the sciences and the crafts, which cannot be denied. Our attention was called to this fact by the contents of the writings of a (Transoxanian) scholar, which have reached us in this country. He is Sa'd-ad-din at-Taftazani. As far as the other non-Arabs (Persians) are concerned, we have not seen, since the imam Ibn al-Khatib and Nasir-ad-din at-Tusi, any discussions that could be referred to as indicating their ultimate excellence.

When one considers and ponders this fact, one will observe (in it) one of the wondrous circumstances of this world. "God creates whatever He wishes." "There is no God but Him."
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When you read this, you will notice how the barriere was created between the Quran and the State. Persian influence on language definition and commentary based on Persian thinking made Islam into a religion, instead of System of Life, a Divine Constitution. When the Quran was only used for spiritual matters, commentaries were invented and concocted as the Islamic Government no longer controlled the implentation of Islamic Law and Tafseer.
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