It has been much longer of a hiatus from blogging than I intended. I have been deliberating over various ideas that I would like to write about and even began working on some early drafts. Things were on their way until late Sunday night when I received a call from a relative asking me to turn on the news for a big announcement. Well, by now you all know what that announcement was! Suffice it to say, that changed much of my calculus in determining the topic of my next post. Frankly, the endless media chatter over the past 48 hours and the fact that everyone and their mother has an opinion on Bin Laden's death, I have been struggling - laden if you will - with finding "my take". on the undeniably momentous event. As I continue mulling, in the meantime, please take a look at the always erudite Glenn Greenwald's commentary on the death of Bin Laden. It echoes so much of what I feel now and probably will continue to feel over the next few days as I continue with my mulling.
More to follow soon, I promise!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Welcome to The New Madhhab
Greetings!
This entry marks my late, perhaps long overdue foray into blogging. It has always been one of those "everyone is doing it" attractions for me but I often questioned whether I would have the time, self-indulgence, intellectual curiosity, and let's face it, shameless narcissism to inflict a blog of my writings on to the blogosphere and posterity. Well, I guess this entry answers those doubts!
In all seriousness though, I hope that this blog is more than simply a conduit for my self-expression and the title selected for this blog is indicative of that desire. Madhhab is an Arabic term borrowed from Muslim intellectual history commonly used to denote the traditional schools of Islamic Jurisprudence. In the early formative period of Islamic Jurisprudence (circa 800 C.E.), these schools numbered in the dozens by most estimates. Over the years, the schools largely coalesced into the five traditional schools of Islamic Jurisprudence - named for their progenitor - the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali, and Jafari schools (the last being the sole jurisprudential school of Shi'ite Islam).
These schools were in part law schools in that the teaching and dissemination of Islamic laws and procedures took place there. However, given the fact that each school differed based on the interpretive methodology employed, the Madhhab became the context within which all interpretive activity took place. In other words, the Madhhab was home to an on-going conversation among jurists regarding the development of legal rules and principles, the framing of positive law, and adjudicating the needs of the growing Muslim community. This conversation, as it were, was robust and vibrant with a great degree of plurality and diversity. The Madhhab created a safe space where arguments could be constructed, debated, examined and then deconstructed; while adhering to the over-arching objective that arguments be judged as objectively as possible on the merit of their legal reasoning and probative value.
Furthermore, the Madhhab conferred legitimacy and orthodoxy on the views and juristic opinions of its members. Each Madhhab enjoyed what has been described by one expert as "Corporate status" in that each acquired the ability to confer a measure of "protection" upon its members by virtue of their membership in that particular school. In other words, as long as those members adhered to a strct body of legal rules (in later times) and broad interpretive principles (in the early formative times) of the Madhhab, they enjoyed its corporate protection (i.e. a Hanafi could claim exemption from Shafi'i based policies). Not only were members (jurists) able to have their opinions bear the imprimatur of their respective Madhhab, thereby rendering that opinion orthodox within a particular school; those opinions would be equally respected as orthodox by the other schools as well. The Madhhabs enjoyed, what one expert described as "legitimate particularity", in that while a jurist of one school may disagree with the opinion of a jurist from another school (or for that matter an opinion from within his own school), the jurist could not deny the legitimacy and orthodoxy of the other opinion. And while one opinion may become the going opinion of the day and considered preponderant, all opinions remained extant and deemed legitimate.
The fact that these schools remain today and yet I choose to refer to them in the past tense may cause alarm to some Muslim readers. The choice is deliberate, not because the Madhhab has become moribund as an institution. Rather, because Muslims themselves tend to view the Madhhab as a static entity, a vestige of a bygone era, and the repository of "Tradition" meant to be followed as opposed to actively engaged. More importantly, I do so to draw a distinction to what I think has in many ways become the "New Madhhab" of the modern age: the Blogosphere in particular and the internet in general.
With the advent of the so-called Internet 2.0 (or is it already 2.5, it's hard to keep track) and the Blogosphere; individual users can post, contribute, amend, exchange ideas and thoughts in real time. The internet has become for all practical purposes, today's Madhhab, broadly defined as the repository for an on-going discussion among individuals. The Blogosphere, and by extension the internet, in its purest form is the context today where a community of individuals can generate ideas for mass public consumption, construct and deconstruct arguments, potentially frame the public discourse and shift public opinion. All of this sweeping and global activity can literally happen in real time without individuals ever meeting meeting face to face or even leaving the confines of their homes!
Similar to the juristic opinions of Islam's past, ideas and memes generated on the internet enjoy a similar "legitimate particularity". While ideas or memes may be debunked or discredited, they can still remain extant and by the mere virtue of the fact that they are introduced into the public discourse, they enjoy legitimacy regardless of the dubious nature of the ideas and claims themselves or the people promulgating them. For me the fact that I have at numerous times throughout this one entry linked to Wikipedia - an online reference source with entries created by and edited by the internet community at large with little vetting for accuracy, precisely illustrates the nature of the internet today and at the same time substantiates the claims I am making regarding the so-called "New Madhhab"! All of this certainly comes at a cost to the integrity of our public discourse, but the fact remains that the internet serves as the repository for much of our public discourse and the means through which information is disseminated and consumed.
I hope to continue to expound and develop these ideas in the days and weeks ahead. For the time being, my intent was for this entry to not only mark my entry into the world of blogging but also to facilitate a discussion among those who visit here and afford me the opportunity to develop these and other ideas swimming around in my head further. I can't help but feel a bit sheepish in that for me, as I stated earlier, this is the ultimate manifestation of self-indulgence by assuming there are those who would even want to hear my thoughts on this issue or any other for that matter. I can only hope that this is seen less as a manifestation of self-indulgence and narcissism and more an opportunity for me to simply "think out loud".
Until next time.....
This entry marks my late, perhaps long overdue foray into blogging. It has always been one of those "everyone is doing it" attractions for me but I often questioned whether I would have the time, self-indulgence, intellectual curiosity, and let's face it, shameless narcissism to inflict a blog of my writings on to the blogosphere and posterity. Well, I guess this entry answers those doubts!
In all seriousness though, I hope that this blog is more than simply a conduit for my self-expression and the title selected for this blog is indicative of that desire. Madhhab is an Arabic term borrowed from Muslim intellectual history commonly used to denote the traditional schools of Islamic Jurisprudence. In the early formative period of Islamic Jurisprudence (circa 800 C.E.), these schools numbered in the dozens by most estimates. Over the years, the schools largely coalesced into the five traditional schools of Islamic Jurisprudence - named for their progenitor - the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali, and Jafari schools (the last being the sole jurisprudential school of Shi'ite Islam).
These schools were in part law schools in that the teaching and dissemination of Islamic laws and procedures took place there. However, given the fact that each school differed based on the interpretive methodology employed, the Madhhab became the context within which all interpretive activity took place. In other words, the Madhhab was home to an on-going conversation among jurists regarding the development of legal rules and principles, the framing of positive law, and adjudicating the needs of the growing Muslim community. This conversation, as it were, was robust and vibrant with a great degree of plurality and diversity. The Madhhab created a safe space where arguments could be constructed, debated, examined and then deconstructed; while adhering to the over-arching objective that arguments be judged as objectively as possible on the merit of their legal reasoning and probative value.
Furthermore, the Madhhab conferred legitimacy and orthodoxy on the views and juristic opinions of its members. Each Madhhab enjoyed what has been described by one expert as "Corporate status" in that each acquired the ability to confer a measure of "protection" upon its members by virtue of their membership in that particular school. In other words, as long as those members adhered to a strct body of legal rules (in later times) and broad interpretive principles (in the early formative times) of the Madhhab, they enjoyed its corporate protection (i.e. a Hanafi could claim exemption from Shafi'i based policies). Not only were members (jurists) able to have their opinions bear the imprimatur of their respective Madhhab, thereby rendering that opinion orthodox within a particular school; those opinions would be equally respected as orthodox by the other schools as well. The Madhhabs enjoyed, what one expert described as "legitimate particularity", in that while a jurist of one school may disagree with the opinion of a jurist from another school (or for that matter an opinion from within his own school), the jurist could not deny the legitimacy and orthodoxy of the other opinion. And while one opinion may become the going opinion of the day and considered preponderant, all opinions remained extant and deemed legitimate.
The fact that these schools remain today and yet I choose to refer to them in the past tense may cause alarm to some Muslim readers. The choice is deliberate, not because the Madhhab has become moribund as an institution. Rather, because Muslims themselves tend to view the Madhhab as a static entity, a vestige of a bygone era, and the repository of "Tradition" meant to be followed as opposed to actively engaged. More importantly, I do so to draw a distinction to what I think has in many ways become the "New Madhhab" of the modern age: the Blogosphere in particular and the internet in general.
With the advent of the so-called Internet 2.0 (or is it already 2.5, it's hard to keep track) and the Blogosphere; individual users can post, contribute, amend, exchange ideas and thoughts in real time. The internet has become for all practical purposes, today's Madhhab, broadly defined as the repository for an on-going discussion among individuals. The Blogosphere, and by extension the internet, in its purest form is the context today where a community of individuals can generate ideas for mass public consumption, construct and deconstruct arguments, potentially frame the public discourse and shift public opinion. All of this sweeping and global activity can literally happen in real time without individuals ever meeting meeting face to face or even leaving the confines of their homes!
Similar to the juristic opinions of Islam's past, ideas and memes generated on the internet enjoy a similar "legitimate particularity". While ideas or memes may be debunked or discredited, they can still remain extant and by the mere virtue of the fact that they are introduced into the public discourse, they enjoy legitimacy regardless of the dubious nature of the ideas and claims themselves or the people promulgating them. For me the fact that I have at numerous times throughout this one entry linked to Wikipedia - an online reference source with entries created by and edited by the internet community at large with little vetting for accuracy, precisely illustrates the nature of the internet today and at the same time substantiates the claims I am making regarding the so-called "New Madhhab"! All of this certainly comes at a cost to the integrity of our public discourse, but the fact remains that the internet serves as the repository for much of our public discourse and the means through which information is disseminated and consumed.
I hope to continue to expound and develop these ideas in the days and weeks ahead. For the time being, my intent was for this entry to not only mark my entry into the world of blogging but also to facilitate a discussion among those who visit here and afford me the opportunity to develop these and other ideas swimming around in my head further. I can't help but feel a bit sheepish in that for me, as I stated earlier, this is the ultimate manifestation of self-indulgence by assuming there are those who would even want to hear my thoughts on this issue or any other for that matter. I can only hope that this is seen less as a manifestation of self-indulgence and narcissism and more an opportunity for me to simply "think out loud".
Until next time.....
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