A Brief Overview of Scope & Impact of Islamic Scholarship
by Hussam Bteibet & Abdullah Ansari
The Quran is not from this world. Hadith was revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Revelation came from Allah ﷻ, through Jibril, to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Allah, the All Knowing and Just, is the Creator of the cosmos. If revelation comes from such a God, how can it be anything but timeless? The classical scholars of Islam interacted with this revelation methodically to develop the academic study of Islam, which we now call “Islamic Studies”. This academic tradition was passed down, teacher to student, from the time of the Prophet ﷺ until our time now. This tradition is alive. It is just as relevant today as it was in the past, and is embodied and carried on by institutions like Darul Qasim.
What is Islamic Studies? At its core, Islamic Studies is composed of the study of the Quran, Hadith, ʿAqīdah, and Fiqh with Arabic as a prerequisite. These subjects are the core of Islamic Studies. At the very least, a scholar of Islam must be able to conduct research in all four of these fields. All other subjects, like history, are auxiliary. One cannot suffice with studying the history of these fields and claim to be a scholar of Islam. If an Islamic Studies curriculum is centered around classes like: Everyday Life in the Early Islamic Period, Major Trends in Mysticism, and Dreams, Visions, and Mystical Experiences, then one gains insight into merely ancillary matters regarding Islam or Islamic civilizations while missing the bigger picture. The world doesn’t need Muslim historians who do not know Islamic Studies.
Based on these four core fields, Darul Qasim aims to develop five colleges:
1. The College of Quranic Studies
2. The College of Hadith Studies
3. The College of ʿAqīdah
4. The College of Fiqh
5. The College of Arabic & the Instrumental Sciences.
Each of these colleges specializes in various sub-sciences required to produce a scholar. For example, the College of Quranic Studies aims to specialize in teaching tafsīr, uṣūl al-tafsīr, tajwīd, and qirāʾāt.
The faculty of the College of ʿAqīdah specialize in teaching and defending Islamic creed and understanding where Muslims have questions about their faith. They have studied the rational sciences to competently critique modern ideas, like atheism, and interact with the Muslims who have these doubts to bring them back to Islam. Let’s take a look at one such critique.
Allah Most High commands us to “Know that there is no god but Allah” [Muhammad 47:19]. Humans have faculties by which they can determine the truth: the five senses, true reports, and the intellect. True reports, like the statement of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, can be accepted in a dialectic once God and a Messenger are proven. Accepting intuitive truths sets Islamic epistemology apart from some western philosophies. One intuitive truth that has not been and cannot be disproven is:
A part of something cannot be equal to or larger than its whole.
The relationship between this intuitive truth and mathematics is critical for the modern Muslim American to understand. Failure to recognize this relationship can cause a person to blindly follow fallacious modern theories, as will be demonstrated in the following paragraphs. This will be demonstrated through a brief examination of modern set theory.
A component of modern set theory is the discussion of infinite sets. An infinite set can be defined as: a set having the same quantity as one of its proper subsets; this notion of infinity is called a “Dedekind infinite”. An example of this is the set of whole numbers. Based on this definition, the set of whole numbers can be proven to be infinite by demonstrating that it has the same quantity as one of its proper subsets. An example of this is conceiving of the set of whole numbers and its relationship to the set of all odd numbers. One can find an odd number for every whole number. They would be considered equinumerous. This is called a bijection.
Figure 1.1: A Bijection
| Whole Numbers | Odd Numbers | |
| 1 | → | 1 |
| 2 | → | 3 |
| 3 | → | 5 |
| 4 | → | 7 |
| 5 | → | 9 |
| ∞ | → | ∞ |
Thus far, this demonstrates that a potential infinity can exist as a mental construct, however does an “actual infinity” exist? Is there a manifestation of an actual set with this definition in the real world? For example, is the set of all redheads equinumerous with the set of all people?
Upon reflection, the absurdity of this concept is clear. Within the philosophy of mathematics, the idea of an “actual infinity” was widely rejected until the modern era. Even now, movements such as “Intuitionism” reject the idea of an actual infinity.
Why does this matter? One way of knowing that there is no god but Allah is to prove it logically. We can claim that the existence of the cosmos is proof for the existence of a God. The proof would be as follows:
Premise 1: The universe is created. (This is arrived at by knowing that the universe has a beginning, i.e. The universe was preceded by non-existence.)
Premise 2: All created things need a creator, i.e. something to bring them into existence.
Conclusion: Therefore, the cosmos needs a creator.
This seems simple, but let’s evaluate a counter argument. Modern atheism claims that the universe has no creator. Thus, some have claimed that each “created” thing – meaning something preceded by non-existence – is brought into existence by another created thing, and so on, ad infinitum. This is an idea called an “infinite regress”. This would result in the necessary conclusion that the cosmos is eternal. Since each created thing needs a created being to bring it into existence, created beings would need to exist eternally. If an actual infinity could exist, this could theoretically be true. However, based on the intuitive truth that a part of something can not be equal to its whole, this is impossible. Moreover, waḥī (revelation), ʿaql (intellect), and modern science deny the idea that the cosmos are eternal. All three agree that it had a beginning, meaning it was preceded by non-existence. By the valid form of argument called modus tollendo ponens, since the idea that the universe has no eternal creator leads to a dead end, we can conclude, with certainty, that the universe has an eternal Creator.
How early do you think this topic was discussed by Islamic Studies scholars? This is an abridgement of an argument brought in al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyah, a treatise written by Abū Ḥafṣ al-Nasafī – a famous, 5-6th/11-12th century jurist, theologian, mufassir, and muḥaddith. He predates Galileo by 500 years. His treatise discusses advanced epistemology, theology, eschatology, and metaphysics. An important commentary was written on the work by Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī in the 8th/14th century. This commentary became the focal point of compounding research and critical study – over 22 different works were written, either revising, clarifying, or further adding to the scope of study of the original work. This includes a 19th century orientalist translating the book, and the translation being deemed a “Franklin Classic”. The back of every Franklin Classic reads: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. Al-Taftāzānī’s Sharh al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyah is considered an intermediate benchmark that every Islamic Studies scholar must pass.
Al-Nasafī lived in the city of Nasaf, also known as Nakhshab within Transoxianna. This region is informally referred to as “Central Asia” and includes countries such as Uzbekistan, and parts of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
Qarshi, Uzbekistan. (Modern day Nasaf)
This region was the homeland to great scholars and luminaries such as al-Imam Bukhārī and al-Imam al-Tirmidhī. Al-Nasafī studied with scholars such as Fakhr al-Islam al-Bazdawī, Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawī and Ahmad al-Ṣibghī, who were all instructors at al-Dar al-Juzjāniyyah, and he was contemporaneous with al-Ghazālī who lived in Baghdad and attended al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmiyyah, and ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī who taught at Bāb al-Uzzaj.
Focused efforts by institutions and scholars, such as Imam al-Nasafi, his teachers, and the institutions he was affiliated with, aided the spread of Islam, both politically and academically, to overtake major cities of the known world. What started as a humble seminary in the desert under the shade of the Prophetic masjid ﷺ known as the ṣuffah, resulted in a spiritual and intellectual reformation within his companions. The propagation of their intellectual legacy spawned a string of major universities and seminaries that would produce generations of great luminaries, academics, and transformed souls. Major cities were always centered around a place of higher Islamic education – although starting small, they always resulted in multi-faceted centers of learning.
Here are some prominent centers of learning that existed through Muslim history:
Egypt – Jāmiʿah al-Azhar, 10th century
Syria – al-Jāmiʾ al-Umawī, 8th Century
Iraq – al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmiyyah, 11th century
Transoxiana – Ulugʻbek Madrasasi, 15th Century
Morocco – Jāmiʿah al-Qarawiyyīn, 9th century
Tunisia – Jāmiʿah al-Zaytūnah, 8th century
Spain – al-Madrasah al-Yūsufiyyah, 14th century
Mughal India – Madrasah Firozi, 13th century
“Ez-Zitouna University.” 731 CE, Tunisia.
These centers of learning would also serve as think tanks that consulted with rulers and influenced state-wide policy. Through a steady production of scholarship and publication of literature, scholars graduating from influential Islamic learning centers earned access to government positions.
Let’s take a look at an example from the Ottoman Sultanate set during the mid-1800s. Following the industrial revolution and the sudden rise in financial transactions, both the French government and the Grand Vizier Ali Pasha were pressuring the sultanate to adopt the French civil code, which would be advantageous for French businessmen and a point of prestige for the French government.
This is where Ahmet Cevdet Pasha comes in – a great Ottoman scholar and statesman who would council the government on policy reform in accordance with Islamic law. Ahmet Pasha successfully convinced the Sultanate that the law of transactions should be based on the Shariah – the supreme source of guidance and success. A council was formed under his leadership to provide a viable solution to deal with the rise in financial disputes and cases. This council, under Ahmet Pasha’s leadership, codified the Hanafi law of transactions into succinct, effective legal cannons that would bring regularity and standardization to court decisions and guarantee their correspondence to the Divine Law.
This codification is known as the famous Majallah al-Aḥkāam al-ʿAdliyyah. The codification of Islamic law was accepted by the Sultan and promulgated into the Ottoman legislative body in 1869.
Figure 1.2: Scholarship Influencing Policy Change
This is but one example of a single scholar, successful in his training of the Islamic sciences, from just one institution of learning. His impact was no longer limited to his friends and family or immediate community. His efforts allowed the impact of revelation to be global.
Note: This piece was inspired by the brothers’ presentation that was delivered at the Darul Qasim Banquet Dinner in September, 2023.
