This study focuses on orthodoxy and mysticism in the religious thought of Shaikh Mul,tammad ibn Tahir al-Fattani (914/1508-986/1578), a sixteenth century Sunui Rohra scholar. Islam had persistently presented two faces: one that was shari ah­ minded and concerned with the outward, socially cognizable behaviour and anothE'r mystkal-minded, concerned with the inward, personal life of the individual. The former was the domain of the "ulama", whereas the Sufi pirs accepted the care of the latter. While there were always those who accepted the one face of Islam as genuine and mistrusted the other or even regarded it as spurious, Shaikh al-Fattani succeecded in marrying the two. He was at once both a mystic pir and an orthodox religious scholar. A biography of Mul}ammad ibn Tahir al-Fattani based on the previous works is attempted with the aim being to collect the factual information pertaining directly to the details of his life. The last years of Shaikh al-F'attani's life were devoted to his reform involvement in his community and particularly to the removal of the Mahdawiyyah thoughts of Sayyid Muhammad Jawnpuri)who had declared himself the promised Mahdi. Against this backdrop of the life account of al-Fattani elements of orthodoxy and mysticism are identified in his scholarly works. Best known for his work Majma bihar al-anwar fi gharaib al-tanzil wa lataif al-akhbir, all the extant works of the Shaikh are discussed. To understand tbe subject within the context of his ethnic identity, aspects of the Bohra community are studied . lt is shown that their occupation as merchants and a history that emphasised their ancient link to the faith of Islam were some of the factors that shaped their group identity. Religious affiliation of the Bohras is explored in detail and after examining the various religious groupings it is evident that the principal communities amongst them differ substantially in their belief systems. Muslims of Sunni Bohra descent are to be found in South Africa. The Sunni Bohra community in general and their ulama in particular are today constantly challenged to not only be devoted to orthodoxy but to sufi doctrine and discipline as well. / Religious studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

I den här studien presenteras undersökning som gjorts inom ramen för ett historiebruk med fokus på IS tidskrifter, där en textanalytisk undersökningsmetod har legat till grund för studien. Syftet med denna analys har varit att undersöka Islamiska statens historiebruk i tidskrifterna Dabiq och Rumiyah med tonvikt på dess motståndare. Frågeställningar som denna studie har behandlat sammanfattas enligt följande: • Hur använder IS historien för att rättfärdiga sitt handlande gentemot sina motståndare? • Hur och vilka framställs som motståndare i IS tidskrifter? • Vilka kopplingar finns det i IS tidskrifter mellan vår nutid och händelser i vår dåtid? Studien har visat hur IS historiebruk har påverkat synen på motståndarna. Med IS tidskrifter har det historiska vapnet kunnat användas genom historiska texter, händelser, ord samt personer. Således har IS skräck-propaganda påverkat individers tolkning av historiska källor där haditherna samt Koranens relevans har bidragit till motståndarnas exekution. Med hjälp av historia kan organisationen ifrågasätta motståndarnas tro för att stärka sin egen ideologi. Artiklarna använder historiska ord för att stärka föraktet men även bygga upp en gemensam tradition där historiebruket rättfärdigar handlandet mot motståndarna. Resultatet visar att motståndarbilden består av korsfarare, shiamuslimer, murtaddin samt mushrikin som med hjälp av ett historiebruk ur islams historia stärker IS identitet samt tillväxt.

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This thesis challenges previous historiography and suggests an alternative explanation for the first appearance in writing of the ḥadīth relating the collection and codification of the Qur’ān. Rather than equating this “sudden” appearance with fabrication, I argue that the ḥadīth were already in oral circulation, and put in writing in Abū ʿUbayd’s Faḍā’il al-Qur’ān in order to serve the religio-political goals of the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mūn (r. 197/813-218/833). I argue that Abū ʿUbayd’s inclusion of the collection and codification accounts, which emphasize caliphal authority over the written Qur’ān, were intended to support al-Ma’mūn’s campaign to control religious authority as exemplified in the Miḥna. / text

Shurayh&dotbelow; b. al-H&dotbelow;arith al-Kindi, the Successor and qad&dotbelow;i is, without a doubt, the most famous Kufan jurist prior to Ibrahim al-Nakha`i (d. 95/713). But neither Shurayh&dotbelow; nor his Kufan contemporaries left any books or written records. All information about the qad&dotbelow;i comes in the form of traditions provided by the later generations of Muslim chroniclers. These traditions do not satisfy any standard of historical verifiability; they tell us primarily and reliably only about what those later generations thought important to say about, or in the name of, Shurayh&dotbelow;. This is, nonetheless, vital information, and its importance is defined in the thesis question: what can we, by examining the traditions about Shurayh&dotbelow;, learn about the development of Islamic law? / The traditions are categorized into the following typologies, each of which is analyzed in a separate chapter: (a) biographical traditions, (b) legal theory, (c) legal ethics and procedure, (d) substantive law, (e) Shi`a juridical traditions. The analysis of the biographical traditions reveals that quite early after Shurayh&dotbelow;'s death---estimated at sometime between 76/695 and 99/718, he had evolved into a hazy figure. / In addition to providing a response to the thesis question, the conclusion seeks to answer some other questions, among them: why did Shurayh&dotbelow;, who was not the legal reasoner par excellence of his time, metamorphose into an aretological figure? Why did the Kufans seek to back-project his appointment to the time of `Umar? Based on the evidence, it is concluded that in Kufan imagery, Shurayh&dotbelow;'s legal opinions were deemed as valid as those of a Companion, and he personified the Kufan authority of "pastness."

The figure of Jesus in the Qur'an has strong eschatological dimensions, but Jesus' role at the end of the world is much like that of other prophets. The Hadith literature introduces an image of Jesus as the prophet-messiah who will descend at the end of history, destroy false religion and confirm the truth of Islam. This concept of the descent of Jesus is studied in this thesis, both in relation to the Qur'an and as part of a wider eschatological development in which Muslims, after Muhammad's death, expressed various views on the meaning and end of history.

<p>Contrary to later Muslim tradition, the first Muslims initially looked favorably upon assimilating Jewish and Christian religious and cultural practices. As Muslim collective religious identity conjoined with political power, Muslims changed their religious policy from imitation to distinction; they began to define themselves both above and against their arch-religious rivals. They visibly and publicly materialized their unique brand of monotheism into a distinct religious community.</p><p>This dissertation is the first attempt to map the Muslim religious discourse that expressed this deliberate turn away from Jews, Christians, and others across pre-modern Islamic history. First, I argue that this discourse functions as a prism through which to view the interplay of religion and politics; a key function of both empire and religion in a pre-modern Muslim context was to uphold hierarchical social distinctions. Next, I show that Muslims imagined these distinctions in very concrete terms. In contrast to conventional studies that emphasize the role of abstract doctrine in making Islam a distinct religion, this study highlights the aesthetic mediation of Muslim distinction through everyday quotidian practice such as dress, hairstyle, ritual, festivals, funerary rites, and bodily gestures - what Sigmund Freud has called, "The Narcissism of Minor Differences." These acts of distinction illustrate that Muslim religious identity was not shaped in a social and cultural vacuum; its construction overlapped with that of ethnicity, gender, class, and the even the human. What this study reveals, then, is how Muslims attempted to fashion more than just a distinct religion, but an ideal moral order, or social imaginary. In this robust Muslim social imaginary, human beings were mimetic creatures; becoming, or subject-formation, was inextricably related to belonging, being part of a community. Despite the conscious attempt of religious scholars to normalize Muslim distinction, this study contests that both elite and ordinary Muslims continued to imitate, and ultimately assimilate, foreign practices within a Near Eastern cultural landscape of sharedness. </p><p>Drawing upon approaches from religious studies, history, and anthropology, this interdisciplinary study foregrounds both text and theory. It interweaves theories of difference, imitation (mimesis), power, embodiment, semiotics and aesthetics with a broad range of Arabic literary texts spanning theology, law, Quranic exegesis, prophetic traditions, ethics, mysticism, historical chronicles, and biography. More specifically, this study highlights the critical role of prophetic utterances (hadith) in shaping the Islamic discourses of Shari'a and Sufism. It foregrounds the contributions of two pre-modern Damascene religious scholars in their historical contexts: the controversial Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), and the underappreciated Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi; (d. 1651), who authored a remarkable encyclopedia of mimesis and distinction hitherto ignored in both Euro-American and Islamic scholarship.</p> / Dissertation

Many works present solid biographical data on h&dotbelow;adith transmitters, offering tajrih&dotbelow; and ta`dil with respect to both personal and social background. These works have different ways of organizing their entries. Some show various classes (t&dotbelow;abaqat) of h&dotbelow;adith transmitters, e.g., T&dotbelow;abaqat of Ibn Sa'd. Others use alphabetical order. The outcome is a difference not only in structure but in contents. Some works are based on transmitters, such as those of the six canonical books of Sunni h&dotbelow;adith ; others are based specifically on the disputable qualities of the transmitters. The purpose of this thesis is to present Ibn H&dotbelow;ajar al-`Asqalani's Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, which comes as a summation of its kind and is to a large degree comprehensive. By focusing on some biographies of h&dotbelow;adith transmitters included in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib which are based on the transmission chains of four selected h&dotbelow;adiths , we hope to show Tahdhib al-Tahdhib as a independent source for assessing the validity of h&dotbelow;adith transmission chains. Moreover, by comparing the assessment of a h&dotbelow;adith transmitter found in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib to that of other works---such as Kitab al-Jarh&dotbelow; wa al-Ta`dil by Ibn Abi H&dotbelow;atim al-Razi and Mizan al-I'tidal by al-Dhahabi---we hope to appraise the position of Ibn H&dotbelow;ajar al-`Asqalani within h&dotbelow;adith criticism.

Thesis (doctoral)--Jamiʻat al-Azhār, Cairo, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references.

Prophetic reports, constituting the second foundational source of the Islamic Weltanschauung, have been categorised in terms of their authenticity. The current work explores reports occurring in single transmission chains that are corroborated in word or meaning by other similarly narrated reports whose source at the level of Prophet Muhammad's companions could either be the same or different. Rules pertaining to this field have been amalgamated for the first time to simplify their application. Appropriated practical examples have been given to illustrate harmony between theory and praxis. Concentration has been restricted to a corroboration of reports by other transmission chains. An examination of the latter falls outside the scope of this investigation. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Islamic Studies)