Hermeneutic Research: An Experiential Method presents a method to investigate lived experiences. In doing so, this book integrates a broad range of philosophical topics, such as hermeneutics, the philosophy of consciousness, and the philosophy of being. We are conscious beings. Through every act of consciousness, something is presented to the experiencing person. Something--a theme--stands in the focus of attention. Within the dimensional human consciousness, this theme is related to other thoughts, a process that includes certain aspects of the theme and (...) excludes others from conscious experience. The foundational conviction of the experiential method detailed in this book is that thought is not static in its ultimate nature but organically dynamic. Thought uncovers its internal endlessness through time as its medium, just as the small seed uncovers the unity of a tree through soil as its medium. Thought, as a dynamic self-revealing phenomenon, uncovers itself as a series of understandings that cannot be interpreted except through reciprocal reference. Meaningfulness, therefore, is not contained in self-identity but in the larger whole in which it is a specific part. Wholeness contains possibilities of knowledge as present realities revealing themselves, through human choices and experiences, in temporal progression to reach a unity that is already contained in them. This infinite movement of knowledge thus reveals the possibility intrinsic to finite thought. Intuition, as wholistic apprehension, is movement that could acknowledge and reach an immanent infinite, of which the finite concepts of comprehension and cognition are only momentums. (shrink)

It is characteristic of A. to use words that occur only once in Homer, and such a word is ρρητος. In Od. 14. 466 it describes the remark that is better left unspoken, πέρ τ' ρρητον μεινον. But it has the distinction of occurring once also in Hesiod, and this time it is used of men without fame, ητοί τ' ρρητοί τε Διòς μεγάλοιο κατι . It is clearly this line in Hesiod's proem that A. is echoing in his own, (...) and in the same kind of sense, though, as Martin points out, A. ‘renverse en quelque sorte une expression d'Hésiode’. In the Phaenomena it is Zeus who is always being celebrated by men. The idiom with ν and negative is used by Plato, Lg. 793 b, οτε νόμους δε προσαγορεύειν ατ οτε ρρητα ν, and it may have been a familiar expression. But here in A., with the emphatic οδέποτε, it does seem rather contrived, and this may account for the fanciful explanation in the scholia that Zeus here represents the air we use every time we speak. The phrasing is certainly designed to give the maximum emphasis to ρρητον, which comes in enjambement at the beginning of the second line and is then followed by a strong sense pause. It is tempting, therefore, to suggest that the poet is indulging in a kind of pun on the sound of his own name, which usually has a long α in its first syllable and sometines η in its second: e.g. Call. Epigr. 27. 4 ρήτου σύντονος γρυπνίη, and Leonidas, A.P. 9. 25. 1 γράμμα τόδ' ρήτοιο δαήμονος. Other Hellenistic poets have contrived puns on the derivation oftheir names: Philodemusin A.P. 5. 115, Meleager in A.P. 12. 165, and Crates in A.P. 11. 218. 4. Closer to A. is the story recorded in the ancient biographical tradition of Antigonus complimenting the poet with the pun εδοξóτερον ποιες τòν Eδοξον. (shrink)

What is the point of isdem ? Editors of Juvenal pass over the word without comment and most translators are content with an unexplained ‘the same’. But if it means ‘the same as the ships that made the bridge’, it is odd that it should be put with the first clause. On the other hand, if Juvenal means the same ships as those that passed through the Athos canal, the reference must be to the fleet that sailed to Greece and (...) not to the boats that formed the bridge. The awkwardness of the passage is shown up by the obscurity of the Budé translation: ‘la mer tellement couverte de ces mêmes navires que, solidifiée, elle aurait supporté les roues des chars.’. (shrink)

The traditional interpretation of line 149 understands in praecipiti as a metaphor expressing the height that vice has reached in Juvenal's day. Vice is now ‘at its zenith’, ‘at its highest point’, ‘auf demGipfel’, ‘at its acme’, ‘a son comble’, ‘at a climax’, ‘at a dizzy height’. Lewis and Short have a special sub-heading, II. B. 3. b., for this example of praeceps and translate ‘at its point of culmination’.

We report the identification of a recurrent, 520-kb 16p12.1 microdeletion associated with childhood developmental delay. The microdeletion was detected in 20 of 11,873 cases compared with 2 of 8,540 controls and replicated in a second series of 22 of 9,254 cases compared with 6 of 6,299 controls. Most deletions were inherited, with carrier parents likely to manifest neuropsychiatric phenotypes compared to non-carrier parents. Probands were more likely to carry an additional large copy-number variant when compared to matched controls. The clinical (...) features of individuals with two mutations were distinct from and/or more severe than those of individuals carrying only the co-occurring mutation. Our data support a two-hit model in which the 16p12.1 microdeletion both predisposes to neuropsychiatric phenotypes as a single event and exacerbates neurodevelopmental phenotypes in association with other large deletions or duplications. Analysis of other microdeletions with variable expressivity indicates that this two-hit model might be more generally applicable to neuropsychiatric disease. © 2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

This is an intellectual biography of Benjamin Kidd, a leading Social Darwinist in the years before World War I, and a social prophet in the tradition of Comte and Spencer. His first book Social Evolution, published in 1894, was an immediate and enormous success around the world. In it, Kidd developed a collectivist form of Social Darwinism in tune with the values of Progressivism in America and the 'new liberalism' in Britain. By many it was regarded as the (...) basis for a properly scientific sociology, and the combination of its claims to scientific methodology, with an emphasis on non-rational forces as the agents of progress accurately caught the temper of its times. Launched on his career as a writer, Kidd's subsequent books and journalism continued to exercise extraordinary influence. His 'social imperialism', linking a bio-political defence of empire with a programme of social reform, won currency in the Anglo-American world at a time of expansionary fervour. (shrink)

Stone-walling dialogues are exercises in structured non-cooperation. It is true that dialogue participants need to cooperate with one another and in ways sufficient to make possible the very dialogue they are now having. Beyond that there is room for non-cooperation on a scale that gives great offence to what we call the Goody Two-Shoes Model of argument. In this paper, we argue that non-cooperation dialogues have perfectly legitimate objectives and that in relation to those objectives they need not be considered (...) at all subpar to conversations that brim with sunny amity.Two categories of stone-walling non-cooperation dialogues are here examined. They are called MindClosed and NoEngage. They are exemplified by the following cases:1. Hostile Police Interrogation2. Judicial Cross-Examination3. Department Store Complaints Management4. Lakatosian Science5. Gödel's First Incompleteness Proof. (shrink)

The problem of salvation of non-Muslims is a crucial element in the discourse of Islamic modernism. It was no less important for such Islamic thinkers of the classical period as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and Abu Ḥamid al-Ġazali. The attention of the author of the present paper focuses on understanding the problem of salvation in the teaching of Muhammad Rashid Rida, who was one of the key participants in the modernist movement in Islam. Being a representative of “intellectual salafism”, Rashid Rida (...) proposes a solution for the issue of salvation that comes as an alternative for traditionalist views predominating in Sunni Islam. The present paper serves to prove that Rida’s quite peculiar solution is deeply rooted in Islamic tradition. In particular, it relates to viewpoints of al-Jawziyya and al-Ġazali, which deflect from mainstream. Similar to many other Islamic modernists, the main although not the only argument of Rida is based on the Quranic idea of all-embracing Divine grace. In his analysis of Rida’s position, the author notes that the former does not lean towards the liberal variant of Islamic reformism that supposes religious pluralism as one of its basic ideas. Advocating the superiority of Muhammad’s message, the Egyptian thinker adhered to a specific form of soteriological inclusivism that differs from religious pluralism. According to Rida, the main criterion for one’s salvation is whether one was touched upon by undistorted Islamic message or not. Rida was convinced that Gehenna only awaits those non-Muslims who received undistorted Islamic message, clearly understood its Divine source and thenintentionally rejected it. But even they may be redeemed, as God is not obligated to act on his declared threat. (shrink)

As a collective action problem, climate change is best tackled by coordination. Most moral philosophers therefore agree on our individual responsibility as political citizens to help establish such coordination. There is disagreement, however, on our individual responsibilities as consumers to reduce emissions before such coordination is established. In this article I argue that from a Kantian deontological perspective we have a perfect duty to refrain from activities that we would not perform if appropriate coordination were established. Moral autonomy means that (...) we do not need to wait for an external lawmaker to tell us what we ought to do. In practice, this means basing our decisions on a shadow price for carbon: if we would not go out for a drive on a sunny Sunday afternoon in a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle if gas prices were twice as high, we should not do it now. Moreover, we have imperfect duties to reduce emissions by more than our perfect duties require. (shrink)

Through most of the history of economics, the most influential commentators on methodology were also eminent practitioners of economics. And even not so long ago, it was so. Milton Friedman, Paul Samuelson, Trygve Haavelmo, and Tjalling Koopmans were awarded Nobel prizes for their substantive contributions to economics, and were each important contributors to methodological thought. But the fashion has changed. Specialization has increased. Not only has methodology become its own field, but many practitioners have come to agree with Frank Hahn's (...) (1992) view that methodology is a distraction to the practitioner, best left to the professional methodologists and philosophers, and of little practical import even when delivered from their pens. John Sutton's lectures, Marshall's Tendencies: What Economists Can Know, is a welcome return to the older fashion, for Sutton is an eminent practitioner of game theory and industrial organization. One of the main themes of these rich and nuanced lectures is the relationship of economic theory to econometric evidence. Sutton's reflections on econometrics appear to arise from the darker recesses of his practitioner's soul. While he affects a sunny disposition and ends on a hopeful note, his analysis articulates the lurking fear that econometrics is a hopeless project and that economics has little to learn from the interaction of theory and econometrics. Sutton's book is like a play in which virtue triumphs, but the villain gets all the good lines. (shrink)

The rivalry between religions is obvious on a number of fronts: in wars between Christians, Muslims, and Hindus; in sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants, or between Shia and Sunni; in the persecution of doctrinal heretics; in the splintering of new sects along doctrinal lines; in efforts to proselytize; and so on.

For the purpose of clarity I offer an operational definition of Islamic thought which is Sunni-based. The public sphere is placed in the context of deliberative politics as an ethical frame in which the following elements are assumed: freedom, equality, reciprocity, reasoning, choice, fraternity and solidarity. Three Islamic models are identified: model, the Sufi/individualist model; model, shariah-legal-religious nationalism; and model, the ethical model. Model is taken to be the most relevant to the notion of deliberative politics. The implications of model (...) for the idea of individual, society and political authority are examined. The issue of translation proviso is then introduced in the context of examining the feasibility or otherwise for model to become a dominant Islamic discourse. Finally, I introduce the notion of ‘silence’ as potentially useful for the idea of religion and deliberative politics. (shrink)

Britanya'daki tüm Müslüman toplumu için tek bir dini otoritenin olmaması, etnik ve mezhepsel farklılıklara bağlı olarak pek çok dini otoritenin oluşmasına neden olmaktadır. Britanya’daki Müslüman topluluklar genelde etnik ve mezhepsel kimlikler etrafında kümeleştiklerinden ötürü camileri ve dini otoriteyi de buna göre oluşturmuşlardır. Bu makale, Britanya doğumlu genç Sünnî Müslümanlar için dini otoritenin ne olduğunu araştırmaktadır. Bu çalışmada kullanılan veriler Britanya’nın en kozmopolit şehirlerinden biri olan Leeds şehrinde, etnografik bir çalışmayla 18-30 yaş aralığındaki genç- Sünni Müslümanlarla yapılan mülakatlardan elde edilmiştir. Bu (...) çalışmanın temel gayesi bu genç Müslümanların günlük dini yaşamlarında dini tavsiyeleri nereden ve nasıl aldıklarını yansıtmaktır. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma, Britanya bağlamında araştırmaya katılan kişilerin dini otorite arayışlarındaki tercihlerini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu açıdan özellikle Britanya doğumlu genç Müslümanların eğilimini ortaya koymak son derece önemlidir. Bu makale, başlangıç olarak katılımcıların tercihlerine dayalı olarak Müslümanlar için dini otoritenin merkezinde bulunan dört cami imamını takdim etmektedir. Onları ele almakla, Britanya’daki Sünni Müslümanların yaşamlarında cami imamlarının rolü ortaya konulmaktadır. Her bir imamın profili incelenirken camii cemaatinin hangi sorular sorduğu ve imamlara yaklaşım metodu yansıtılmaktadır. Daha sonra, Leeds ’teki Müslümanların dini yaşamlarında özel bir önemi olan ve fetva veren iki meşhur din uzmanı ele alınmaktadır. Son olarak da Britanya’da yaşayan sıradan Müslümanların dini otorite arayışında sanal bir bilgi kaynağı olarak internet incelenmektedir. Böylece bu çalışma başlıca iki sonuç ortaya koyar: Britanya’daki genç Müslümanlar Deobandī, Barēlwī ve Cema’ati İslâmî gibi farklı mezhebi kimliklerden de olsalar da sıradan bir Müslümanın belli bir ameli mezhebi (Hanefî, Şafiî, Malikî ve Hanbelî) takip etmenin elzem olduğunu kabul etmektedirler. Diğeri ise onların dini otorite arayışındaki eğilimlerinin genelde ilk olarak yerel cami imamından başlayıp sonra da onların etnik ve mezhebi çevrelerinde meşhur olan daha uzman ulemaya kadar geniş çevreye ulaşmasıdır. (shrink)

The Prophetic hadith “pray with your leader,” which G. H. A. Juynboll argued originated with Shuʿba b. al-Ḥajjāj, urges Muslims to observe the prayer both at its appointed time and with an imam who delays its performance. An isnād analysis that factors in the different readings of the tradition could not reproduce Juynboll’s result and yielded significantly earlier dates of origin for the oldest two variants: the early 60s/680s and the early 80s/700s. It is argued that the tradition was invented (...) and distributed in reaction to activists who disapproved of Umayyad religious practice, especially the postponement of the ṣalāt. Two of the regime’s representatives in Iraq, the governors Ibn Ziyād and al-Ḥajjāj, were publicly accused of delaying the ṣalāt at the time the tradition was circulated. The tradition constituted thus an early articulation of the quietism that would later become a characteristic of Sunnism. (shrink)

Hicrî birinci yüzyılın sonu ile ikinci yüzyılın ortalarında yaşamış bulunan Ca‘fer-i Sâdık ve Ebû Hanîfe, akran iki âlimdir. Kûfe’de yetişen ve Ehl-i sünnet mezheplerinden birinin imamı olan Ebû Hanîfe’nin, Medine’de yetişen ve İsnâaşeriyye’nin altıncı imamı kabul edilen Ca‘fer ile bir araya geldiği ve onun talebesi olduğu hem sünnî hem Şiî kaynaklarda rivayet edilmektedir. Mukaddem kaynaklarda Ebû Hanîfe’nin Ca‘fer-i Sâdık’ın öğrencisi olduğu yönündeki ifadelerin, muahhar kaynaklarda abartılı bir şekilde yorumlandığı görülmüştür. Bu çalışmada Ebû Hanîfe ile Ca‘fer-i Sâdık arasındaki hoca-talebe ilişkisi netleştirilmeye (...) çalışılmıştır. Bu sebeple öncelikle kısaca her iki imamın hayatı ele alınarak onların ilmî birikimi tespit edilmiştir. Akabinde Ebû Hanîfe ile Ca‘fer’in ne zaman ve ne kadar süre birlikte oldukları, Ebû Hanîfe’nin Ehl-i beyt’e yönelik tutumunun Ca‘fer’den ilim almasında ne gibi bir etkisinin bulunduğu ve çeşitli ilim dallarında Ebû Hanîfe- Ca‘fer ilişkisi tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır. (shrink)

How is a philosophical tradition created? What role does literary biography play in the formation of intellectual reception history? Through a detailed analysis of the lives and works of post-Avicennan philosophers, this monograph traces the intellectual history and development of the Avicennan tradition from the fifth/eleventh to the eighth/fourteenth century. Section 1 investigates the genres of Arabo-Islamic biobibliographical and prosopographical writings as a source for the history of Arabic philosophy, delineating their literary topoi, the construction of philosophical authority, and the (...) relationship of Sunnī and Twelver-Šīī Islam to Aristotelian logic and philosophy. Section 2 presents fourteen discrete biobibliographical studies with a critical inventory of the works, including those written in the neglected exegetical genres of commentary, supercommentary, gloss, and supergloss, of Avicenna's immediate disciples and the following generations of philosophers who created the Avicennan philosophical heritage in the Islamicate world.--Provided by Publisher. (shrink)

Al-Qadi al-Nu´man b. Muhammad es el más destacado y prolífico de los estudiosos fatimíes y el fundador de la jurisprudencia isma´ilí. En su epístola " La clarificación elocuente para la refutación de Ibn Qutayba", todavía en manuscrito, al-Nu,man se lanza a una polémica en contra de Ibn Qutayba, que había vivido un siglo antes. Es probable que la epístola fuera escrita en la época de al- Mu´izz a petición de un tutor anónimo de los hijos del califa. En ella, al-Nu´man (...) se propone refutar la afirmación de Ibn Qutaybba, incluida en la introducción de su famosa obra Adab al-Katib, según la cual era suficiente para la realización de sus tareas que los kuttab, o funcionarios del estado, memorizaran una serie de fórmulas legales simples, sin tener que aprenderse las largas disertaciones de los fuqaha' o doctores de la ley. Al-Qadi al-Nu´man, un faqih famoso, se dedica en la epístola a demostrar que sin estas disertaciones no se podía aplicar la ley correctamente. En su texto se refiere a cada fórmula legal mencionada por su rival en Adab al-Katib y demuestra cómo la ley se debería aplicar basándose en la autoridad de los imames del Ahl al-Bayt, la Familia del Profeta Muhammad. También refuta las distintas interpretaciones legales sunníes de estas mismas cuestiones. (shrink)

Klasik Sünnî kelâmın sıfatların ‘ne Tanrı’nın aynı ne de Tanrı'dan ayrı' olduğunu iddia eden ilâhî sıfatlar teorisi, üçüncü halin imkansızlığı yasasının inkarı anlamına gelecek şekilde yorumlanmıştır. Nitekim bu iddiada olan yazarlar, böyle bir teoriyi dışarıda bırakacak şekilde yeni bir kelâm inşa etme iddiasındadır. Yazar, böyle bir iddiayı kendinde anlamsız görmekle birlikte, klasik kelâm nazariyesinde de bir temeli olmadığını iddia etmektedir. Bu makale, ‘gayr’ın anlamı hakkında ayrıntılı bir inceleme sunmakta ve birçok metinsel kanıtla, klasik ilâhî sıfatlar teorisinin yalnızca özdeşliğin ve ilâhî (...) zâttan ayrılabilirliğin inkarı anlamına geldiğini öne sürmektedir. Bu makale, gayr teriminin metafizik, teoloji ve doğa felsefesi bağlamlarında da geçerli olduğunu göstermektedir. “Bir şey bir diğerinin ne aynı ne de ayrıdır” formülü, bir öznenin kendisinden zorunlu ve ayrılmaz olan herhangi bir özelliğine eşit şekilde uygulanır. Bir diğer ifade ile söz konusu ilke, mümkün varlıklar için de aynı şekilde geçerlidir. Araştırma “gayr” kavramının Arap dilbiliminde aslî olarak olumsuzlama anlamına gelmediğini, aslında bir sıfat olduğunu ve aynı zamanda istisnaî cümle oluşturma işlevi gördüğünü iddia eden dilbilimsel bir tartışmayla başlamaktadır. Bu da ilâhî sıfatlara ilişkin ilkenin, temel dilbilimsel düzeyde bile üçüncü halin imkânsızlığı anlamına gelmediğini kanıtlamaktadır. Akabinde “gayr” kavramı kelâmî n. Söz konusu inceleme kendisini herhangi bir ekolle sınırlı değildir, ancak inceleme dört ana kaynağa dayanmaktadır: (1) Mu'tezileden Ka‘bî'nin Makâlât'ı; (2) Eş‘arî'nin Makâlât'ı ve (3) Mâtürîdî'nin Kitâbu't-Tevhîd ve (4) Te’vîlât. Bazı yazarların Mâtürîdî'nin üçüncü halin imkânsızlığı yasasının inkârını îmâ eden özgün bir duruşa sahip olduğunu iddia etmeleri nedeniyle, sonuncusu üzerinde daha fazla duruldu. Böylesi bir ilkenin mantık yasalarının inkârını îmâ ettiğine dair hiçbir belirti yoktur. Aksini iddia edenler, böyle mantıksız bir görüş için felsefi gerekçelendirme bir yana, yorumları için herhangi bir dilbilimsel veya metinsel kanıt bile sunamamıştır. (shrink)

Sünnî usulcülere göre sahih olan haber-i vahid zan ifade etmekle birlikte, böyle bir haberle amel etmek naklî ve kat’î delillerin bir gereği olarak vaciptir. Şiî-Usûlî geleneğin temsilcilerinden Şerif Murtazâ ise haber-i vâhidle amel etmenin aklen caiz olduğunu, ancak bunun dinî açıdan vacip olmadığını iddia etmiştir. Ona göre Kur’an, mütevâtir haber ve masum imamın dâhil olduğu icmâ kesin bilgi kaynağı olduğundan bağlayıcıdır. Haber-i vâhid ise zann ifade etmektedir. Böyle bir haberle amel etmeyi gerektiren naklî kat’î bir delil ise bulunmamaktadır. Bu nedenle (...) haber-i vâhid amelî konularda hüccet değildir. Şerif Murtazâ, Sünnî usulcülerin haber-i vâhidin hüccet olduğuna dair naklî kat’î delillerini eleştirmiş, usulcüler ise bu eleştirilere cevap vermişlerdir. Araştırmamız Şiî-Usûlî geleneğin haber-i vâhide yaklaşım evreninden Şerif Murtazâ örneğini ele almayı ve Sünnî usulcülerin görüşleriyle mukayese etmek suretiyle değerlendirmeyi hedeflemektedir. Şerif Murtazâ’nın âhâd haber konusundaki yaklaşımı özü itibarıyla masum imam teolojisine dayanmakta-dır. Araştırmada masum imam teolojisinin ve haber-i vâhidle amel etmeyi gerektiren kat’î bir delilin bulunmadığı iddiasının nas, icmâ, tevâtür ve makul açısından vakıaya aykırı tutarsız bir görüş olduğu tespit edilmiştir. (shrink)

Muslims accept the existence of prophets and the occurrence of miracles as a basis of faith. The issue whether miracles will emerge from the righteous or saints is debatable. All Islamic scholars have accepted the existence of spiritual miracles, such as the grace of Allah to his saintly servants in the form of glad tidings, peace of heart and perseverance in faith. However, the existence of sensible (ḥissī) miracles or extraordinary situations that a person would never be able to do (...) under normal circumstances such as resurrecting the dead, changing the nature of objects, talking with inanimate beings and animals, knowing the events of the unseen, reaching long distances in a short time, walking on water or in the air, etc. has been the subject of serious debate. Most notably Mutazilites as well as some Sunni scholars also rejected saintly miracles and they argued that such events could only occur for prophets -with Allah’s permission and creation- and that they were called miracles. They are also concerned that if the extraordinary acts of saints are accepted, the institution of prophecy and therefore the proof of the miracle may be harmed. One of those who accepted this view is the famous Ẓāhirī scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064), who grew up in Andalusia. He claimed that marvelous events would occur only on the hands of the prophets, and he argued that it cannot be possible for a rightful person, saints or wizard to do extraordinary acts. However, he considered the marvelous events attributed to some people -who were not known to be prophets in the Qur’an and hadiths- as the miracles of the prophet who lived in the period in question. Ibn Ḥazm, who accepted that extraordinary events occurred from some of the ṣaḥāba (Prophet’s companions) during the Prophet’s lifetime, claimed that it ended with the death of the Prophet. According to him, those who claim that such events took place after the Prophet Muhammad, are liars, dishonest and deceitful people. In this article, the nature and limits of miracles according to Ibn Ḥazm are discussed, and the role he assigned to miracles despite being a scholar of the ahl al-ḥadīth is evaluated. (shrink)

The present piece focuses on the influence of Plotinus' understanding of time and eternity as articulated in Plotinus' third and fifth Enneads upon Mīr Dāmād's (d. 1631–2) conception of eternity, perpetuity, and time found in his Book of Blazing Brands (Kitab al‐Qabasāt). Although Mīr Dāmād's conception of eternity, perpetuity, and time resembles that of Plotinus' cosmology and ontology, he departs from Plotinus' hypostases in establishing strict parameters for each domain. Unlike Plotinus, Mīr Dāmād argues that the realm of eternity is (...) reserved for God alone, while the realm of Perpetuity contains the Platonic Forms. For Mīr Dāmād, the realm of time is an effect of the realm of Perpetuity and a tool for human beings to understand how to measure events in the temporal world. Unlike many other Shī'ite philosophers, Mīr Dāmād's articulation of these three cosmological realms incorporates thought found in the works of both prominent Sunni and Shī'ite scholars such as Ibn Sīnā, Abū Ḥāmid al‐Ghāzālī, Suhrawardī, and Naṣīr al‐Dīn Ṭūsī. Although his most successful student, Mullā Ṣadrā Shirazī, had ultimately disagreed with his teacher's cosmological doctrine, he remained influenced by the multitude of sources that his teacher had used. (shrink)

This paper examines the thought of Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī (d. 631/1233) regarding takfīr (declaring another a non-believer), a practice which would become popularized in the generation after the death of the Prophet Muhammad by a sect known as the Kharajites. The Kharajites were a religio-political sect that would use takfīr as a kalāmic tool of excommunication, as well as a justification for violence against other Muslims. The group originates in the first century of hijrah following their excommunication of the Caliph (...) ‘Alī for mediating with his political challenger Mu‘āwiya. In the centuries following the emergence of this sect, scholars of kalām such as al-Āmidī would begin to discuss and debate takfīr in the context of the greater Muslim community. In contrast to the Kharajites, a number of other sects al-Āmidī would recognize as deviant would hold contrasting beliefs, including the Murji’ites who vehemently opposed the excommunication of anyone so long as they outwardly maintained belief in God and His prophet. While some of these scholarly debates over takfīr would become so heated as to result in excommunication between kalāmic schools, it would later be accepted that excessive takfīr was not necessarily a characteristic of any single Sunni sect, but rather a mentality that could manifest in any given kalāmic school. Many of these scholars would adopt a kalāmic formula designed to prevent excessive takfīr, the principle that the “those belonging to the qibla” (ahl al-qibla) ought not be excommunicated. In his formulation, Al-Āmidī addresses a number of issues debated as potential reasons for takfīr, including the committing of major sins (murder, adultery, theft, etc.), abandonment of central Islamic obligations, opposing scholarly consensus, belief in the createdness of the Qur’ān, denying the beatific vision (ru’yā), misinterpreting the divine attributes (ṣifāt), and the excommunication of prophetic companions or other Muslims. This principle, as shown in this study, would be considered flexible by many of these scholars, who were willing to excommunicate followers of heretical movements. Al-Āmidī, a prominent scholar living in the context of these debates surrounding excommunication, spent considerable energy on the question of takfīr and proposed a number of original insights. In attempting to minimize the application of takfīr, al-Āmidī analyzed many of the specific issues discussed by previous scholars on the issue, arguing that many acts previously considered excommunicable in fact did not constitute disbelief. These groups include such sects as the Kharajites, Murji’ites, Mu’tazilites, Shi’ites and anthropomorphists, whom al-Āmidī argues must not be excommunicated from the fold of Islam, drawing from both logical (‘aqlī) and scriptural (naqlī) arguments. One of the central scriptural sources al-Āmidī deploys is an oft-quoted prophetic tradition concerning the prediction of the Muslim nation splitting into 73 sects, only one of which will be saved from the hellfire – implying that these groups should still be recognized as Muslims. Conversely, questions regarding which al-Āmidī would affirm the obligation for takfīr include denying prophecy, any aspect of divine revelation, belief in the divinity of objects or beings, denial of God and divine miracles, and insulting God, the prophets, or any aspect of the religion. This study further analyzes Al-Āmidī’s definitions of īmān (belief) and kufr (disbelief), the relationship between them, and his views on specific heretical sects as debated in the Sunni tradition. (shrink)

Mu'tazila and Shīʿa (Zaydiyya-Imāmiyya) have common views on many theological issues except the imamate. This issue has been generally accepted by other Islamic scholars rather than Shīʿa and by Western researchers. That in this interaction between the Mu‘tazila and the Shīʿa, the Shīʿa is the side mostly affected. However, it is an issue that should not be overlooked that the Shīʿa partially influenced the Mu'tazila in ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, over the other Companions. In this context, some persons from the (...) Baghdad Mu’tazila School such as Bishr b. al-Muʿtamir (d. 210/825), Jaʿfar b. Mubashir (d. 234/848), Jaʿfar b. Harb (d. 236/850) and al-Iskāfī (d. 240/854) argued that the imamate of Abū Bakr, who was less virtuous, was permissible although they considered ʿAlī as the most virtuous person after the Prophet. In addition, al-ʿAllāf (d. 235/849-850), al-Naẓẓām (d. 231/845), Abū Abdullah al-Basrī (d. 369/979-80) and Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025) along with Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (d. 303/916), one of the chiefs of the Basra Mu'tazila School, and Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321/933) did not accept the order of caliphate as the order of virtue. This study focuses on the issue of whether the aforementioned affinity between Mu'tazila and Shīʿa affected Mu'tazila, especially in the interpretation of the verses associated with ʿAlī. In the study, the aforementioned problem was examined through the tafsīr al-Kashshāf of the Muʿtazilī mufassir al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144). In addition to the importance of tafsīr, the fact that al-Zamakhsharī took lessons from Shīʿīte/Zaydī persons and he wrote the tafsīr with the support of Zaydī leader al-Wahhās (d. 506/1112) is effective in handling this issue through al-Kashshāf's tafsīr. In the first part of the study, first of all, the interaction between Imāmiyya and Zaydism, which are the two most important branches of Mu‘tazila and Shīʿa, is briefly mentioned. Then, Mu'tazila’s and Al-Zamakhsharī’s view on ʿAlī's position among other caliphs is emphasized. Al-Zamakhsharī, who is from the Basra school of the Mu'tazila, does not consider ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib superior to Abū Bakr, unlike al-ʿAllāf, Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī and Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, who are the leading figures of this school. In fact, the fact that he always observed the order of the caliphate while talking about the merits of the four caliphs supports the possibility that, unlike his predecessors, he accepted the order of the caliphate as the order of virtue. In the second part, it is questioned whether the narrations that al-Zamakhsharī included in his tafsīr of the verses associated with ʿAlī are similar to the narrations of the Shīʿīte/Zaydī/Imāmī tradition and whether he interpreted the verses in parallel with these narrations. In this respect, the tafsīr al-Kashshāf has been examined comparatively with the Sunni and Shiite tafsīrs prior to it. Eventually, while interpreting these verses associated with the Ahl al-bayt (members of the Prophet’s household), al-Zamakhsharī highlights the narrations that appreciate the virtues of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and his child. However, he also refrains from making comments that would be in line with the Shīʿa's belief in imamate. In particular, his tafsīr of the verse al-Aḥzāb 33/33 in the context of the Prophet’s wives is the greatest indicator of this situation. It has been determined that while al-Zamakhsharī includes the narrations highlighting the virtue of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and his children, he mostly follows the Sunni commentator al-Thaʿlabī. In particular, it has been seen that al-Zamakhsharī transferred the narration material in the interpretation of the relevant verses from al-Thaʿlabī's commentary almost in the same way. However, it is noteworthy that al-Zamakhsharī differs from him in some details such as linguistically supporting these narrations in some verses such as ʾĀli ʿImrān 3/61 and al-Māʾidah 5/55. An indirect influence can be mentioned because al-Thaʿlabī frequently narrates the narrations supporting the Shīʿītes in places where there is a Sunni-Shīʿīte conflict. Therefore, although there is no evidence that al-Zamakhsharī took these narrations from Shīʿīte sources, it is seen that he brought ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib-based narrations in Sunni sources into the fore. Even in the commentary of al-Ḥākim al-D̲h̲us̲h̲amī, al-Zamakhsharī's teacher in the line of Zaydi/Mu'tazili, the lack of Ali emphasis in the interpretation of the aforementioned verses supports our view. (shrink)

Tarih boyunca Kur’an’ı anlama ve yorumlama faaliyetinin metodolojik bir zemine oturtulmasına yönelik çabaların semeresi olarak oluşup şekillenen klasik Ulûmu’l-Kur’an bahislerinden biri olan nesh konusu Sünnî gelenekte olduğu kadar Şiî gelenekte de farklı yorumlara konu olmuştur. Şiî müfessirler çoğunlukla bu kavramın anlam ve izahı ile ilgili olarak Sünnî meslektaşlarıyla benzer tutumlar sergilemiş olsalar da belli kırılma noktalarında onların kendilerine özgü yaklaşımlara sahip olduğu da gözlemlenebilmektedir. Özellikle nesh ve bedâ kavramları arasındaki benzerlik ve karşıtlık noktaları ile neshin Kur’an dilindeki isimlerinden biri olan (...) insâ kavramı bu farklı yaklaşımların temerküz ettiği hususlar arasında sayılabilir. Bu yazı söz konusu kavramın Şiî tefsir edebiyatı içerisinde nasıl anlaşılmış olduğunu izlemenin yanı sıra bu geleneğin Sünnî gelenekten ayrıştığı noktalara titizlikle işaret edebilmek için kimi değerlendirmeler yapmayı da amaçlamaktadır. Özellikle bedâ kavramı çerçevesinde Şiî tefsir ve daha genel anlamda Şiî düşünce hakkında ağırlıklı olarak dışarıdan teşekkül etmiş algı, bu düşüncenin ilahî bilgide değişiklik ya da eksiklik gibi illetleri mümkün gördüğü şeklindedir. Ne var ki doğrudan Şiî bilginlerin tefsir metinlerinde böyle bir yargıyı doğrulamak için yeterli veri bulunmamaktadır. İnsâ kavramı ise Şiî müfessirler tarafından, onların peygamberlerin ismeti konusundaki hassas tutumlarının neticesi olarak, farklı yorumlara ve mezhep içi tartışmalara konu olmuştur. Bu tartışmalarda Şiî bilginler imamlardan nakledilen rivayetlerin literal anlamlarına sadık kalmakla teorik tutarlılığı sürdürme arasında farklı konumları benimsemişlerdir. Bu bağlamda bu yazı, tefsir disiplini çerçevesinde benimsenen genel kabullerin metin yorumunda sebep olduğu gerilimlere ve açtığı diyalektik düşünme imkânlarına dair daha kapsamlı çalışmalar için bir tür giriş/başlangıç noktası oluşturmayı da hedeflemektedir. (shrink)

Çocuk evliliği, tarih boyunca farklı toplumlarda bilinen ve uygulanan sosyal bir olgu olsa da son zamanlarda, modern duyarlılıkları giderek daha fazla rahatsız eden bir hal almıştır. Son iki asır öncesine kadar, Avrupa hukuki düşüncesinde çocuklar yargı önünde farklı bir muamele görmelerine imkan veren istisnai bir statüye sahip değildi. Diğer taraftan, İslam hukukunun çocuklara, özel bir hukuki statü kazandırma konusunda bazı öncü adımlar attığını söyleyebiliriz. Nitekim, en eski İslam hukuku kitaplarının bile, insanın fiziksel ve zihinsel gelişim aşamalarına ve her bir aşamada (...) ortaya çıkan hukuki hükümlere dair son derece teknik ayrıntılarla dolu olduğunu görebiliriz. Ancak çocuk hakları konusundaki bu erken farkındalığa rağmen, çocuk evliliği olgusu hem İslam toplumlarında hem de İslam hukukunda kendini gösterebilmiştir. Çünkü, İslam çocuk hukuku, ilk ortaya çıktığı dönemin kültürel şartlarından ciddi şekilde etkilenmiştir. Üstelik bu kültürel şartlar, İslam dünyası boyunca İslam çocuk hukukunun temel zemini olma işlevini sürdüre gelmiştir. Bu çalışma, alimlerin çocuk evliliğini delillendirmek üzere yapageldikleri bazı aşırı yorumları ortaya koymaya ve konuyla ilgili âyetleri metinsel bağlamıyla daha uyumlu bir şekilde okumaya çalışmaktadır.Özet: Her bağlam için geçerli olabilecek, standart bir çocuk tanımı yapmak göründüğünden daha güçtür. Bu nedenle çocuk araştırmaları sahasında çalışan akademisyenlerin, muhtelif sosyal disiplinler tarafından yapılacak herhangi bir çocuk tarifi konusunda memnuniyetsizlik içinde olması doğaldır. Diğer yandan, İslam hukukunda baştan beri ayrıntılı bir çocuk hukuku teorisi mevcuttur. İslam hukuk düşüncesinde, insanlar doğum ile yetişkinlik arasındaki gelişim döneminde üç aşamadan geçerler: Çocukluk (küçüklük), buluğ ve rüşt. Bütün fıkıh mezhepleri, insanın doğumu ile ergenliği arasındaki dönemde küçük çocuk sayılacağı kanaatindedirler. Bu çocukların mallarının en iyi şekilde idare edilebilmesi için yasal temsilcileri bulunmak zorundadır. Fakîhler çocuğun velisinin, özellikle de baba veya baba tarafından dedenin, velâyeti altındaki küçük çocuklar üzerinde mücbir bir yetkisi olduğu (velâyet-i mücbire) konusunda geniş bir fikir birliğine sahiptirler. Buna göre veliler, velâyetleri altında bulunan çocukları uygun gördükleri kişilerle evlendirme yetkisine de sahiptirler. Fakat zaman zaman beşik kertmesi olarak da anılan bu uygulama bir ön sözleşmeden ibarettir. Yani bu sözleşme doğrudan doğruya fiziksel boyutları da olan müşterek bir evlilik hayatını meşru kılmamaktadır. Çünkü cinsel hayatın ancak buluğdan sonra gerçekleşmesi ön görülmektedir. Modernite öncesi İslam tarihi boyunca, İbn Şubrume (ö. 144/761), Ebû Bekr el-Esamm (ö. 200/816) ve Osman el-Bettî (ö. 143/760) gibi bir kaç fakih dışında küçük çocukların evlenmesine kategorik olarak karşı çıkan kimselere pek rast gelinmemektedir.Hanefi mezhebinde, herhangi bir zihinsel özrü olmaksızın buluğa eren erkek ve kız çocuklar evlilik konusunda mücbir velâyetin kapsamı dışına çıkarlar. Bu, evlilik sözleşmelerini bizzat gerçekleştirebilecekleri anlamına gelmektedir. Fakat veli, uygunsuz bulduğu evliliğe karşı dava açarak bunu yargı yoluyla geçersiz kılma yoluna gidebilir. Diğer üç Sunnî mezhep ise erkek ve kız çocuklar arasında bir ayrım yapar: Buluğa eren erkek kendi evlilik akdini yapabilme hakkını elde ederken aynı durumdaki kız çocuklar velâyet altında kalmaya devam ederler. Şâfiʿî mezhebine göre, velâyeti gerekli kılan illet (bekaret) hâlâ geçerliliğini korumaktadır. Dolayısıyla veli, kızları evlendirme konusundaki icbâri yetkisini elinde tutmaya devam etmektedir. Bu durumda kızın rızasının alınması, akdin geçerliliği için şart olmaktan ziyade sadece nezaket gereğidir. Rüşte ulaşmak veya fizyolojik olgunlaşma sürecini tamamlamak ise İslam hukukunda evlilik için şart görülmemiştir.Modern zamanlara kadar geleneksel İslam hukukunun erken evlilik lehinde gösterdiği bu yaklaşımda herhangi bir değişiklik olmamıştır. 1917 yılında çıkan Hukuk-ı Aile Kararnamesi daha önce benzeri görülmemiş bir dizi düzenleme getirmiştir: İlk olarak, evlilik yaşı erkek için on sekiz kız için ise on yedi olarak belirlenmiştir. On sekiz yaşın altındaki erkeklerin hakimden evlenme izni alması; on yedi yaşından küçük kızların ise hem veli onayı hem de hakim iznine sahip olması zorunlu hale getirilmiştir. On iki yaşın altındaki erkekler ile dokuz yaşından küçük kızların ise asla evlendirilemeyeceği kararlaştırılmıştır.Mantıkî bağlam ve sentaktik yapı elverişli olmamasına rağmen fakihler çocuk evliliğini desteklemek üzere bazı Kur’ân âyetlerine (Nisâ 4/3-6, Nisâ 4/127, Talâk 65/4) referansta bulunmuşlardır. Makale içeriğinde detaylı şekilde açıklandığı üzere zorlama yorumlamalarda bulunmuşlardır. Bu makale, söz konusu âyetlere daha tutarlı bir yorum getirmeye çalışmaktadır. Aynı şekilde, Kur’an’ın çocuk evliliğini kolaylaştırıcı bir tavır içerisinde olmadığını, çocukların evlendirilebilmesi yönündeki yaklaşımların tarihsel ve kültürel şartlara bağlı olarak yapılan bazı zorlama yorumlara dayandığını ileri sürmektedir.Hz. ʿÂişe’nin Hz. Peygamber ile oldukça erken bir yaşta evlendiğine dair nakledilen rivâyet de konuyla ilgili olarak ileri sürülen başka bir argümandır. Bu rivâyetin sahih olduğuna inanılmaktadır. Buna rağmen ilginç bir şekilde bu rivâyet çok az fakih tarafından kullanılmıştır. Bunun sebebi, fakîhlerin Hz. Peygamberin mahremiyetinden bahsetmek istememeleri olabilir. Rivâyetin hücciyeti konusuna kuşkuya kapılmış olmaları da mümkündür. Söz konusu rivâyete daha yakından bakıldığında, ifadedeki menfi üslup hemen dikkat çekmektedir. Çünkü rivâyette Hz. ʿÂişe, Hz. Peygamberle evlendiği günü anlatırken sürekli olarak fizyolojik ve psikolojik açıdan olumsuz koşullardan bahsetmektedir. Nitekim Hz. ʿÂişe birden bire oynamakta olduğu salıncaktan alınmakta ve kendisinin de bilmediği bir yere doğru götürülmektedir. Rivâyet, sadece çocuk evliliğinin cevazını ortaya koymakla yetinmemekte, sanki aynı zamanda çocukların uygunsuz koşullardaki evlilik taleplerine bile itaatkar olmaları gerektiğini salık vermektedir. İçerik yanında teknik olarak bakıldığında bu rivâyet, haber-i vâhiddir. Çünkü rivâyet, sadece Hz. ʿÂişe tarafından bilinebilecek detayları içermektedir. Tarihî açıdan bir öneme sahip olmasına rağmen dinî hükümlere kanıt olma niteliğinden yoksundur. Çünkü bu rivâyette, râvi konuyla ilgili Hz. Peygamber’e ait resmi bir açıklamayı nakletmemekte; sadece kendi zaviyesinden maruz kaldığı bir durumdan bahsetmektedir. (shrink)

continent. 1.2 (2011): 129-135. Introduction Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei Successions of words are so agreeable. It is about this. —Gertrude Stein Nachoem Wijnberg (1961) is a Dutch poet and novelist. He also a professor of cultural entrepreneurship and management at the Business School of the University of Amsterdam. Since 1989, he has published thirteen volumes of poetry and four novels, which, in my opinion mark a high point in Dutch contemporary literature. His novels even more than his poetry are (...) criticized for being inaccessible, which I generally take to be a compliment. It would be like saying that Fernando Pessoa is inaccessible, which he is not. Neither is Wijnberg. When we think of the combination economist-poet we are immediately reminded of the American poet Wallace Stevens, who, as the story goes, had two stacks of paper on his desk, one for contracts, one for poems. We also know that Stevens wrote on the economy and that questions of economy and insurance surface at multiple points in his poems. The following text is a very preliminary attempt to point at the intersections between poems, novels, business, and poetry in Wijnberg’s work. On the back cover of his novel De opvolging ( The Succession , 2005), Wijnberg states the following: “[This is] a novel for whomever is interested in the workings of a company as much as in the workings of a poem.” Wijnberg thus claims that the way in which a company “works” may be similar to the way in which a poem “works.” The question is the obvious one, what does this similarity consist in? De opvolging tells the story of company in which bosses and company doctors, secretaries, children, clowns, and beggars have tons of meetings, recite poems, perform plays, tell jokes, and succeed each other, climbing up and down in the company’s hierarchy. De opvolging is a novel in which the career of people follows the career of words. It resonates with Gertrude Stein's sentences, "Grammar. What is it. Who was it" (1975, 50). The words in Wijnberg's poems are like he characters in his novel. And if we keep in mind this allegorical reading of De opvolging , which is obviously only one of the possible readings, we may be able to understand some aspects of Wijnberg’s poetry. A repetition is already a pun. Look, that word is trying it again, as if it is afraid that by not doing it it would give up the hope that it will ever be able to do something. A pun is the opposite of the first word coming to the mind of someone who shouts it when he suddenly discovers something. (104) The repetition, the succession of the same word, is already a pun, a joke. The succession of the father by the son after the revolution is a joke. "Look he's trying it again!" The essence of a joke is a repetition. Archimedes’ “Eureka!” is its opposite. Poems can easily become jokes, depending on the way the words follow and repeat each other. In De opvolging , the careers of the bosses, good and bad secretaries, and company doctors easily become jokes, as they are “afraid that by not doing it [they] would give up the hope that [they] will ever be able to do something.” Not only the repetition, but also the distance and difference between the words in a poem, their cause and effect relations can be read as company relations. This becomes clear when we, for example, read the first lines of the poem “Cause, sign” from Het leven van ( The Life Of , 2009). A sign lets know what is going to happen, a cause lets it happen. If the sign also lets happen there is no reason to isolate it, because then I would isolate some- thing only because it’s different for me. If I didn’t have to write this myself, but would have secretaries to whom I could dictate it, I would be able to say more about it. (49) Upon reading the first two lines we can already conclude that any word may be cause or sign or both. If a sign is also a cause there is no reason to discriminate it, yet to the poet they are still different. This difference only becomes expressible the moment he would have a secretary. Just like in De opvolging , the secretary introduces a distance; not in a company but in a poem. Hence the difference between “good” and “bad” secretaries in a company, where the good secretary of one boss may be the bad secretary of another one. The more we can say about the bosses of the company, or signifiers of the poem, the greater the distance we introduce between them and us. We should take serious the relation between Wijnberg’s novels and poems. Although they operate on different scales, they explain and converse with each other. Another example may be the novel Politiek en liefde ( Politics and Love , 2002), which deals with the relation, precisely, between politics and love. In the novel, Nicolai, a lieutenant in the Dutch army, is sent to Africa on a military mission. Upon leaving a receives a letter from his father. Dear son, Don’t do anything stupid before your father has advised you to do so. Your mother asked me to write a wise letter. I have been looking for wisdom for half a day and haven’t found much. If you borrow a small amount from a bank you become the bank’s slave, but if you borrow a couple of millions and spend them as quickly as possible the bank becomes your slave. What I want to say is that you have to return from Africa in good health, and before you know it the world will be your slave [....] Signed with a kiss from your father. (88) The line, “If you borrow a small amount from a bank you become the bank’s slave, but if you borrow a couple of millions and spend them as quickly as possible the bank becomes your slave,” returns as the title of poem in Het leven van: “If I borrow enough money the bank becomes my slave” (12-3), which elaborates this theme. So both in the way that these poems are structured and in their subject matter, they refer to the structures of our economy, to the ever-continuing line of CEOs succeeding each other like words, to the distance between them introduced by bureaucracy, and giving and receiving as economical and poetical acts. Poem and economy map onto each other, as in another episode from De opvolging : Edward reads two of the beggar’s poems about presents. Of a holiday nothing remains, except for memories, and if some of them are bad I’d rather forget them all; if I get a present I’d rather get something that’s useful to me for a long time. If I may choose, I choose what I can use longest, long enough to partially forget that this was the present, because it feels bad when nothing is left of it. […] Giving away becomes destruction in the stock destruction economy [ voorraadvernie -tigings-economie ], that is a gift economy [ geschenkeneconomie ], encountering for the first time an economy in which there’s selling and buying on markets. Instead of destroying supplies someone can also quickly say that they aren’t worth anything anymore; if someone wants to take them I’d gladly give him something extra. In a stock destruction economy he is someone who each day wants to work more hours than his colleagues. If around a company there is a gift economy in which someone’s rank is determined and made visible by the gifts someone can give someone else, a company will be more often character- ized by an invisible or unclear system of ranks. (152) Two poems about gifts present two different economical models, described by Wijnberg with the terms “stock destruction economy” and “gift economy.” Here we immediately recall the opposition introduced by George Bataille’s work on the concept of expenditure in The Accursed Share , where a “general economy” would surpass the stock destruction economy based on scarcity (capitalism) and become a gift economy (potlatch) and an egalitarian (communist) society. These claims are made both on the level of the poems and in their discursive explanation. They follow each other and on each other. I would like to finish this introduction to Wijnberg’s writing with a translation from his novel De joden ( The Jews , 1999), which develops the story of Hitler abdicating as chancellor of the Third Reich, appointing philosopher Martin Heidegger as his successor. In a conversation with two Russian actor-spies, sent by Stalin to figure out the situation, philosopher Walter Benjamin describes the abdication scene. Maimon: You were there when Hitler resigned? Benjamin: In the room we’re right now. The desk and the chairs are new. After his resignation Hitler would like to take his furniture to his new house. Martin naturally agrees. It is a sunny day. Martin is very nervous and complains about the heat. Martin is wearing his best dark blue suit, not his professor’s robe. Hitler is wearing his uniform. We enter the room and Hitler gets up and embraces Martin. Martin is not very good at embracing. Hitler shakes his hand. Hitler’s cap is on the desk. The cap has a metal lining. Hitler has strong neck muscles. Hitler says: A man is unclean. He takes a bath. Does he make the bath water unclean? I say: a man is unclean. He steps into a river. A little further a man steps into the river; does he become unclean? Hitler nods. I say: a man is standing in music. Another man hears the music but also sees the first man moving on the beat of the music in a way that he is certain that the music would excite different feelings in him if he wouldn’t to see the first man. Hitler says: a man is clean, listens to music, is suddenly touched and he doesn’t know by what. The conversation ends in the way you know it ends. Hitler picks up his cap from the desk and puts it on Martin’s head. (73-4) Aware of the never ending debate on the question of Heidegger’s involvement in the Nazi regime, Wijnberg has the audacity to present the arguments of complicity in the religious terminology of cleanliness and uncleanliness, while at the same time recalling overtones of Hitler’s supposed love for Wagner, suggesting a relation between Benjamin and Hitler, and so on. The space of this introduction is to small to treat a novel like De joden , a reading of which together with passages from Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe's Heidegger, Art, and Politics: The Fiction of the Political , Jacques Derrida's Of Spirit , Christopher Fynsk's Heidegger: Thought and Historicity , and Avital Ronell's The Telephone Book would be extremely elucidating and potentially open new avenues in thinking Heidegger's emphasis on poetry after the fall of the Nazi empire. But at this point we will have to curb our curiosity and follow the poet himself. The themes of the relation between business and poetry, but also Chinese landscape painting, love, Indian and Japanese poetry, and Western philosophy are analyzed and assimilated in Wijnberg’s work without ever losing the clarity of expression. It may be that, according to Alain Badiou, the “Age of the Poets” is over, but its end (Paul Celan) has exactly brought a new balance between philosophy and poetry, and it is this playful, but nonetheless serious balance that makes one hope that one day Wijnberg’s complete oeuvre might become available to readers across the planet. Tiranë, Albania February 15, 2011 English translations (all of them translated by David Colmer, who is preparing an English collection of Wijnberg’s poems entitled Advanced Payment ): Poetry International Words Without Borders Green Integer Review from Het leven van ( The Life of ) THE LIFE OF KANT, OF HEGEL As if every day he takes a decision that is as good as when he’d been able to think about it all his life. The life of Kant, of Hegel, the days of the life of, select three or four of them. Tell what he has discovered during those days as if he were the last one who knew so little. Give me something that I can cancel against then I can prepare myself for it. The reward is that I may continue with what I’m doing, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. This has nothing to do with everything remaining the same if I say that I no longer want anything else. I wouldn’t be able to say in which one and the other occur in a way that I if I knew something to cancel that one against it wouldn’t be possible now. The stars above my head and being able to say what belongs to what if I’ve let them in. FOLLOWING MY HEART WITHOUT BREAKING THE RULES Observing the rules without observing the rules by going where the rules no longer apply. I could also observe the rules there by applying them to what at great distance may resemble what the rules are about. But why would I do that, not to confuse someone who is seeing me from a great distance? Behind this morning the morning prepares itself when the rules are everything I have. IF I BORROW ENOUGH MONEY THE BANK BECOMES MY SLAVE A bank lends me money, if I don’t pay it back they tell my boss that he has to pay them my salary. But they have to leave me enough to eat and sleep and an umbrella when it’s raining. They can also empty my house, the furniture isn’t worth a lot, but every little helps. Each morning I leave for work, if I don’t start early they’ll soon get someone else, no bank will lend me money when the sun is shining. My boss has given me a cat to raise as a dog. Of course I know that it won’t work out, but I’ve asked for a week—maybe the cat gets lucky, maybe I get lucky. My hands around a cup of coffee, before I leave for work, warm-empty, cold-empty, as if hidden in the mist over a lawn. What I make when there’s no work left for me, I’m ashamed to say how little it is. Once I’m outside I check it, if they watch out of the window they can see me doing it. Suppose it is so much that I’d stay counting for hours, it’s getting dark and I’m still there. They stay watching for a while once they’ve finished their work, but have to go home, I get that, sure, I could also go home and continue counting there. If it’s too little running back immediately won’t help, because nobody’s there anymore, and if I come back tomorrow I may have spent what’s missing tonight. Going somewhere where it’s warm enough to walk around without clothes during daytime, it helps me to know that something’s more there than here. For someone like me there’s work anywhere, it shouldn’t take a week to find work for me there. Three times work and a home close to work, I may choose one and try for a week whether I want to stay there. If at the end of the week I don’t want to stay I’m back on the next day, then it was a week’s holiday. RULES If that’s against a rule, it’s yet another one that I cannot observe, or only so briefly that I cannot re- member it later. Anyways the rules are only there to help me remember what I need in order to do better what I do. In that respect there’s no difference between the rules that I find in a book and the rules that I think of early in the morning. I know that because I’ve made a rule just now nothing has yet to observe it. CAUSE, SIGN A sign lets know what is going to happen, a cause lets it happen. If the sign also lets happen there is no reason to isolate it, because then I would isolate something only because it’s different for me. If I didn’t have to write this down myself, but would have secretaries to whom I could dictate it, I could to say more about it. If something is taken away from me I consider how it would be if the opposite had been taken from me. That is what causes or signifies what is farthest away from what is caused or signified by what has been taken away from me. note: For the translations of “The life of Kant, of Hegel” and “If I borrow enough money the bank becomes my slave” I was able to consult David Colmer’s wonderful translations. (shrink)

This article examines the development of the ritual of mubāhala, a category of oaths and mutual self-cursing, during which two individuals seek to confirm the veracity of their creedal position by appealing to God’s curse upon them. Based on a prophetic precedent embedded in Q 3:61 and reported as a challenge purportedly employed by the Companions Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās, I argue that the practice of resorting to mubāhala in the Sunni tradition goes through two main phases of reinvention (...) and legitimation before its reappearance in the contemporary Muslim world. The first phase belongs to the anti-Monist controversies of the seventh to ninth/thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, while the second appears among reformist scholars starting in the late eighteenth century. (shrink)

In this article, the solution proposed by Osman Afīf Efendi, a late Ottoman scholar, to the problem of the creation of human actions in his Risālat al-irādat al-juzʾiyya will be discussed. Although the problem of the role of human beings in their actions, which has been debated since the early period of theology, has been the subject of works with different titles such as ḳaẓā wa ḳadar, ḫalḳu'l-aʿmāl, and efʿāl al-ʿibād, in the Ottoman scholarly tradition it was mostly dealt with (...) in the treatises on the particular will (al-irādah al-juz’iyyah). Osman Afīf Efendi's treatise is one of the last examples of this genre. In addition to al-Jabriyya, the majority of the Muʿtazilites, the famous view of the philosophers, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/935-36), Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyīnī (d. 418/1027), Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013), and the Māturīdī school, the author mentions an eighth view. Osman Afīf Efendi touches only the main ideas of the well-known views of the Jabriyya, the majority of the Muʿtazilites, and the Philosophers. On the other hand, he gives relatively more space to the views of al-Ashʿarī, al-Isfarāyīnī, al-Bāqillānī, and the Māturīdī school. Osman Afīf Efendi states that the solutions proposed by Sunnī scholars are united in the common denominator of being the middle way in the faith and emphasizes the similarities rather than the differences between these solutions. There are some indications in the treatise that the author endeavored to bring a different perspective to Ashʿarī's idea of Kasb. His explanations in the context of al-Bāqillānī and al-Isferāyīnī's views are in the form of a response to the criticisms levelled against the approaches of these scholars. One of the most striking points in the treatise is the statement that the view of the Māturīdī school is the same as that of al-Bāqillānī. Osman Afīf Efendi also touches upon the issue of human will, that is, the universal and particular will. In this context, he states that the particular will is not created. However, he does not provide a clear explanation of the ontic structure of the particular will, and he mentions the different opinions expressed by later Māturīdī scholars, such as the juzī will being a dispositional or intizāʿī state. (shrink)

Human actions have been one of the most discussed topics in the science of kalām since the first centuries of Hijra. Many scholars from different schools of kalām have tried to solve this problem. Efforts to solve the problem have brought different views. In this framework, three main views emerged Jabrī, Qadarī/Muʿtazilī and Salafī/Sunnī. The views of Islamic philosophers were added to these and this number was increased to four. Nevertheless, Sunnī scholars, who agree on the basic propositions, disagreed on (...) the nature of kasb. While there are differences of opinion between Ashʿarī and Māturīdī schools, there are also those who put forward different views among scholars belonging to the same school. Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013), Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyīnī (d. 418/1027) and Juwaynī (d. 478/1085), Sadr al- Shrīʿa (d. 747/1346) and Ibn al-Humām (d. 861/1457) are the most obvious examples of this. These views on human actions have been mentioned in their works by scholars of kalām. One of these scholars is Gelenbevî Ismāʿil (d. 1205/1791). In this article, the views on human actions will be examined in the context of Gelenbevî’s work named Ḥāshiya ʿalā Sharḥ al ʿAqāʾid al ʿAḍudiyya. Gelenbevî makes concise or detailed explanations about the views mentioned in his work with the exception of Ibn al-Humām. In addition, he also mentions the views of al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111). While Gelenbevî mentions these views and the discussions that took place around them, He makes use of his works Ījī’s (d. 756/1355) named Mawāqif, Taftāzānī’s (d. 792/1390) Sharḥ al Maqāṣ̣ıd and Jurjānī’s (d. 816/1413) Sharḥ al - Mawāqif. Gelenbevî states that Ashʿari’s view is middle jabr (jabr al muṭavaṣṣıṭ) and even he is accused of being pure jabr (jabr al- maḫẓ). Based on the concept of partial will (al-irādah al-juzʾiyyah), he says that the views of Bāqillānī and Māturīdī school are the same and states that this view is more successful than Ashʿari’s in explaining human responsibility. This thought indicates that he is closer to the Māturīdī view of human actions than to Ashʿarī. He points out that Isfarāyīnī’s views are open to criticism in some respects. He implicitly states that he does not agree with the idea that Juwayni agrees with the Islamic philosophers. Rather than Muʿtazila’s views, it focuses on whether their views and the views of Islamic philosophers are the same. (shrink)

In the Qur’an, human distinctiveness was first questioned by angels. These established denizens of the cosmos could not understand why God would create a seemingly pernicious human when immaculate devotees of God such as themselves existed. In other words, the angels asked the age-old question: what makes humans so special and different? Fast forward to our present age and this question is made relevant again in light of the encroaching arrival of an artificial superintelligence (ASI). Up to this point in (...) history, humans have exceeded other creatures in various respects; now a possibility has arisen that another entity, namely ASI, will exceed humans at least on the level of intelligence and power. In relation to the age of angels, pre-modern Sunni exegesis construed human distinctiveness along the axes of reproductive knowledge and stewardship. Both brittle, distinguishing markers will disappear in the age of the ASI. Conversely, a more resilient and creative Islamic response can be derived from Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 1240) views on God and the imago Dei. Inspired by the Akbarian perspective, this paper construes human distinctiveness in relation to a capacity to expansively respond to God’s love to be recognized, a response that relies on (a) imitating divine virtues that operate in counterintuitive and illogical ways, and (b) exhibiting fragility and lack rather than exceptionalism. ASI, while responding already in part to God’s love, needs to make strides towards these traits before it can answer divine love as commensurately as humans can. (shrink)

İslâm geleneğinin en akılcı fırkası kabul edilen Mu‘tezile’nin özellikle Kur’an kıssaları çerçevesinde tefsirlerde yer bulan israilî rivayetler karşısındaki tutumu merak uyandırıcıdır. Bazı çalışmalarda kimi Mu‘tezilî müfessirlerin isrâiliyyât karşısındaki tutumuna değinilse de İsrâilî rivayetlerin tenkidi söz konusu olduğunda Mu‘tezile’nin bir ekol olarak tutumu herhangi bir araştırmaya konu edilmemiştir. İsrâiliyyât üzerine yapılan son çalışmalarda isrâiliyyât eleştirisinin İbnü’l-Arabî öncesinde Tûsî, Mâverdî hatta Mâtürîdî gibi isimlere kadar geri götürülebileceği söylenirken tamamen Sünnî ve Şiî müfessirler üzerinden bir okuma yapılmakta Mu‘tezilî müfessirlerin görüşlerine yer verilmemektedir. Oysa (...) bu çalışmalarda bahsedildiği üzere erken dönem isrâiliyyât eleştirilerinin genelde ismet meselesi ekseninde yapılması, Mu‘tezilî müfessirler özelinde bir incelemeyi zorunlu kılmaktadır. Nitekim isrâiliyyât eleştirisinde ön plana çıkartılan Mâtürîdî (ö. 333/944, Mâverdî (ö. 450/1058), Tûsî (ö. 460/1067), İbnü’l-Arabî (ö. 543/1148) ve İbn Kesîr (ö. 774/1373) gibi Sünnî ve Şiî müfessirlerden önce Ebû Bekir el-Esam (ö. 200/816), Ebû Alî el-Cübbâî (ö. 303/916) ve Ebû Müslim el-İsfahânî (ö. 322/934) gibi Mu‘tezilî isimler tarafından isrâiliyyât eleştirisinin yapıldığı görülmektedir. Her ne kadar onlar eserlerinde isrâiliyyât kavramını kullanmasalar da bu eleştirileri bazen rivayetlerin kaynağına bazen de içeriğine yöneltmektedir. Daha sonraki Mu‘tezilî âlimlerin de belli âyetler üzerinden bu eleştiriyi sistematik olarak devam ettirdikleri söylenebilir. Çalışmada öncelikle hicrî 2-6. asırda yaşamış el-Esam, Ebû Ali el-Cübbâî, Ebû Müslim el-İsfahânî, Kâdî Abdülcebbâr (ö. 415/1025), Cüşemî (ö. 494/1101) ve Zemahşerî (ö. 538/1144) gibi müfessirlerin, israiliyata bakışına odaklanılmaktadır. Söz konusu müfessirlerin farklı israilî rivayetler karşısındaki tutumu betimsel analiz yöntemiyle değerlendirilmektedir. Ayrıca aynı dönemdeki Sünnî müfessirlerin bu rivayetlere yaklaşımına da atıfta bulunulmaktadır. Mu‘tezilî müfessirlerin isrâiliyyâta yaklaşımı ele alınırken; onların bu rivayetleri reddetmeleri, isrâilî rivayetleri yorumsuz aktarmaları, aklî yorumu isrâilî rivayetlere tercih etmeleri ve isrâiliyyâtla âyetleri tefsir etmeleri gibi farklı yaklaşımlar hususunda ayrıma gidilmektedir. Mu‘tezilî müfessirler eserlerinde birçok İsrâilî rivayet aktarsa da özellikle tefsir geleneğinde sorunlu bazı rivayetlerin te’vilinde eleştirel yaklaşımın ilk örneklerinin onlardan gelen tefsirlerde olduğu söylenebilir. Bu bağlamda çalışmada klasik dönemde isrâiliyyat eleştirisinde Mu‘tezilî müfessirlerin öncü olduğu, özellikle ismet-i enbiyâ ve ismet-i melâike ile ilgili bir takım rivayetlerin eleştirisinin ilk önce Mu‘tezilî müfessirlerle başladığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Yine Mâtürîdî, Mâverdî ve Tûsî gibi Sünnî ve Şiî müfessirlerin kimi yerlerde söz konusu rivayetleri eleştirirken Mu‘tezilî isimlere referansta bulunmasına da dikkat çekilmiştir. Son olarak Mu‘tezilî müfessirler, küllî bir isrâiliyyât eleştirisi yapmasalar da bazı yerlerde söz konusu rivayetleri “Yahudi uydurması ve Tevrat kaynaklı” olarak tanımlamaktadırlar. Bu da onların referans noktaları kendi kelâmî anlayışları olmakla birlikte rivayetleri kaynak açısından da eleştirdiklerini ortaya koymaktadır. Nitekim sistematik bir isrâiliyyât münekkidi olan İbn Kesîr de Peygamberlerin ismetiyle bağdaşmayan kimi rivayetlere tefsirinde yer vermeksizin reddettiği görülürken mucizevî olayları abartılı şekilde resmeden bazı isrâilî rivayetleri yorumsuz aktarmaktadır. Dolayısıyla Mu‘tezilî isimlerin İslâm inancıyla bağdaşmayan isrâilî rivayetlere erken dönemde eleştirel yaklaşması ve bunları nazara itibara almaması kayda değer bir tutumdur. (shrink)

Genel olarak İslam düşüncesini özel olarak da fıkıh düşüncesini derinden etkileyen isimlerden biri de hiç şüphesiz Kâdî Abdülcebbâr’dır (öl. 415/1025). Hayatının çoğu hicrî 4./11. yüzyılda geçen ve Basra Mu’tezilesi’nin Cübbâî’lerden sonra en önemli temsilcisi olan Abdülcebbâr, hem kelam hem de fıkıh usûlü alanındaki eserleriyle sadece Mu’tezilî çevrelerde değil Sünnî muhitlerde de çığır açıcı bir âlim olarak görülmüştür. Birçok Sünnî usûlcünün ortak kanaatine göre İmam Şâfiî’den sonra fıkıh usulü alanındaki en önemli isimlerden biri Abdülcebbâr’dır. Teoloji ve metodoloji alanlarında bu denli etkili (...) olan Kâdî Abdülcebbâr’ın amelî hayatını hangi sistematik çerçevede sürdürdüğü ve öğrenciliği sırasında benimsemiş olduğu Şâfiî mezhebine bağlılığını devam ettirip ettirmediği merak konusu olmuştur. İlgili literatürde Kâdî Abdülcebbâr’ın hayatı boyunca Şâfiî mezhebini benimsediği iddiası çokça dillendirilmiştir. Öyle ki Şâfiî fakihlerin tanıtıldığı tabakât eserlerinde Abdülcebbâr’a bir Şâfiî olarak yer verilmiştir. Günümüze kadar devam eden bu anlayış akademik çalışmalarda da devam eden bir kabul halini almıştır. Acaba gerçek böyle midir? Bu sorunun peşine düşen elinizdeki araştırma, şu adımlarla konuyu incelemiştir: Önce Kâdî Abdülcebbâr’ın fıkıhta takip ettiği yol ile ilgili olarak literatürde zikredilen iddialar sergilenmiş, ardından Abdülcebbâr’ın Mu‘tezile usûlündeki konumu ortaya konmuştur. Mu’tezilî bir âlimin benimsediği iddia edilen mezhebin kurucu imamının yani Şâfiî’nin (öl. 204/820) Mu‘tezile’ye olan mesafesi ve hatta onunla mücadelesine değinildikten sonra Kâdî Abdülcebbâr’ın İmam Şâfiî’nin meşhur usûl görüşlerine muhalif tavırları tespit edilmiştir. Abdülcebbâr’ın usûl görüşlerini İmam Şâfiî’nin usûl görüşleriyle mukayese ederek ilerleyen işbu araştırma, onun amelî sahada Şâfiî mezhebini benimsemiş olduğu iddiasının çok isabetli olmadığı sonucuna ulaşmıştır. Mukayeseyi, Şâfiî usûl düşüncesinin en ayırt edici 6 (altı) meselesi üzerinden yürüten araştırma Abdülcebbâr’ın İmam Şâfiî’ye ve Şâfiî usûlcülere açıkça muhalefet ettiğini göstermektedir. İslam hukuk metodolojisinin en önemli tartışma konuları arasında yer alan bu altı mesele şunlardır: Kur’ân ve Sünnet’in birbirilerini nesh edip edemeyeceği, Peygamber’den nakledilen söz ve fiillerin kabulünün ön şartı olarak bunların Kur’an’a arzı yani delil olabilmesi için Kur’an’ın ilgili düzenlemesiyle uyumlu olup olmadığının tespiti hususu, kıyas sonucu ulaşılan hükmü bir gerekçeye dayanarak terk edip başka bir hüküm koymak demek olan istihsân, çözüm bekleyen yeni meselenin iki veya daha fazla asla/makîsün aleyhe birden benzemesi halinde birçok açıdan en çok benzediği düşünülen aslı dikkate alarak söz konusu yeni meseleye bu aslın hükmünü vermek demek olan şebeh kıyası, mefhûmu’l-muhâlefenin yani bir sözün ters anlamının o sözdeki meselenin tam tersi olup hükmü belirtilmeyen meseleye aktarımı anlamına gelen karşıt kavram kanıtının sahih bir istidlal sayılıp sayılmaması ve emir kipinin hangi anlama geleceği konusu. (shrink)

The Sufyānī narration, which is also referred in some studies carried out today, is mentioned in the early Shiite and Sunnī sources. The anticipated savior perception of the period has an important place in understanding the Sufyānī narrations in the emergence process of which political and sectarian events were effective. Narrations stating that the Mahdī named Muḥammad, one of the descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad (pbuh), would appear in the end of times and establish justice by bringing order to the (...) world where oppression, injustice and inequity have spread, were effective in the political and social life after the Prophet (pbuh). The emergence of the Sufyānī narrations, whose intellectual infrastructure was constituted by the expected Mahdī perception that is effective in the society, was the result of the political conflicts of the period. The death of Muʻāwiya ibn Yazīd (d. 64/684), the third Caliph of the Umayyad State, without leaving a crown behind caused a political crisis. The cousin of the Muʻāwiya II, Marwān bin al-Ḥakam, the experienced politician who turned this moment of crisis into an opportunity and who was from the same dynasty but from a different family, took over the administration and thus the sultanate continued. Although the reign continued from the sons of Umayyad, the administration passed from sons of Sufyān to the sons of Marwān, who were from the same dynasty. This situation caused discomfort in Sufyānīs. Thus, Muʻāwiya II's brother Khālid ibn Yazīd, whose right of administration was seized from him, with the intention of gaining his lost reputation in the society and turning the pessimism towards his family into hope and desire, has been claimed to spread the savior Sufyānī narrations expected from the sons of Sufyān, parallel to the Mahdī narrations expected from the sons of Alī, which was influential in the society. Thus, the Sufyānī came to be expected like the expected Mahdī, who was influential in society and exploited by the Shiite sects in their own belief systems. The rebellions carried out by the sons of Sufyān against the administration in the 2nd century hijrī and afterwards were conceived as the appearance of the Sufyānī expected by the society and the person who led the rebellion was described as Sufyānī. The most important of these rebellions is the revolt of ʻAlī ibn Abdullah ibn Khālid nicknamed Abū ʻAmayṭar, formed by the coalition of sons of ʻAlī and sons of Sufyān who descend from the sons of Umayya. Abū ʻAmayṭar, who is considered to be the Sufyānī and some sections of whose life constitute a source for many narrations on the Sufyānī, declared his caliphate during the period of Abbasī Caliph al-Amīn (d. 198/813) and called for allegiance to himself. The announcement of his caliphate was considered by his supporters as the expected savior. The period of Abū ʻAmayṭar and the sayings about him are extremely important in terms of presenting the expected savior perception in the society, the Sufyānī understanding and the date of his emergence. Sections from Abū ʻAmayṭar's life reflected in the narrations about the Sufyānī in many Shiite and Sunnī sources. In this article, it is tried to examine the emergence of the Sufyānī narrations, its development and particularly its transformation within the Shiite sect, in a detailed manner and especially based on political and sectarian events of the early period. (shrink)