Essential Features of a Modern Religion
E-Book, Englisch, 220 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-451-80286-7
Verlag: Verlag Herder
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
With this book, Mouhanad Khorchide introduces a contemporary approach to Islamic theology. He demonstrates how Islam can make the ground-breaking step towards a theology centred around a merciful God – a step achieved from within and not imposed from the outside. A real sensation – not only from an academic point of view!
Mouhanad Khorchide: "With my book, I aim to outline a theological approach centred around mercy and present it as an alternative to the theological approach of obedience and fear which is so widespread in the Islamic world - in a straightforward way, also accessible to non-experts. For me, Islam is a message of mercy … The divine character trait God uses most frequently in the Qur'an to describe Himself is mercy … It is astounding that this God, the All-Merciful, is so thoroughly neglected in Islamic theology and popular belief!"
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2.1. God is Mercy
The attribute God most frequently uses in the Qur’?n to describe Himself is merciful. The Arabic word ra?ma (mercy) is derived from ra?im (a mother’s womb). This lends the concept of mercy the physical and emotional connotation associated with a mother’s love.
The Qur’?n employs two terms to describe God’s mercy - ar-Ra?m?n (generally translated as “the All-Merciful”) and ar-Ra??m (generally rendered as “the All-Compassionate”). There is an important qualitative distinction between the two terms: while the Qur’?n uses ar-Ra??m (the All-Compassionate) in the context of graciousness and forgiveness, highlighting God’s compassionate love (for example, the Qur’?n speaks of God as the All-Compassionate in the context of His forgiveness of Adam’s sin7), the term ar-Ra?m?n (All-Merciful) refers to God’s willingness and intention to love people unconditionally, and also expresses the caring nature of His love. Compassion is defined rationally, like almost all of God’s attributes, but the notion “all-merciful” is absolute - mercy has no opposite equivalent; it is one of God’s character traits. Ar-Ra?m?n (the All-Merciful) therefore encompasses much more than ar-Ra??m (the All-Compassionate).
It follows that when we speak about mercy, we not only refer to God’s endless willingness to forgive, and His graciousness when it comes to human sins. These aspects are covered by the divine attribute ar-Ra??m. In addition, divine mercy is one of God’s traits, forming part of His being, part of who God is regardless of people’s actions; this is what is meant by the term ar-Ra?m?n. The phrase “God is mercy” is therefore more accurate than “merciful God”. In addition to the aspects of forgiveness and graciousness, God’s mercy is meant to express the following:
God’s very mercy means that the creation of humanity was always pre-decided.8 His mercy expresses His loyalty towards the eternal election of humanity, and as such refers to His relationship with and closeness to people: “We are to him closer than the jugular vein;”9 “And when My servants ask you about me [Muhammad], say: ‘I am near; I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls.’”10 The creation of humanity is an act born out of God’s all-encompassing mercy.
God means to accomplish the project ‘humanity’ through His mercy, and He invites people to join Him, i.e. He welcomes them into His eternal love and mercy.11 This willingness to integrate humanity into God’s presence reflects God’s eternal plan, in turn based on His mercy.
God reveals Himself to us through His mercy.12 By doing so, He shows He is interested in having a relationship with people; He issues an invitation. This makes Him approachable and allows us to experience Him, but we must freely choose to take up the offer.13 Love cannot exist without freedom.
God’s mercy also expresses His care for us.14 This care invites us to trust God. In the arms of God, we can let go and rely on Him.15
Ultimately, God’s mercy also has an eschatological dimension; this means that it encompasses the resurrection of humanity in the hereafter, thus representing a transformation process aimed at perfecting humanity.16
God reveals His mercy in history, as people live and experience it, i.e. in the here and now on Earth. God’s mercy is an expression of His active love, focused on humanity. God not only created the world and preserves it, but He binds Himself to humanity through love, in order to welcome people. God’s love for humanity is rooted in His eternal plan not just to create humanity, but also to reveal Himself to us, and to invite us to join Him. However, people must also be willing to accept this offer, as it requires free commitment to God. This is exactly what the term ‘Islam’ expresses: commitment to God, in the sense of a commitment to God’s love and mercy (cf. Chapter 4.1).
So when was it that God decided to elect humankind?
God is absolute, outside the realms of space and time. As a consequence, His decision-making does not take place at a specific point in time, but He is always decided for what He desires. This means that the election of humanity reflects God’s eternal resolution. God is the source of His plan of mercy, which includes the eternal election of humanity as divine beings. At the same time, this plan encompasses the historical implementation and expression of this election, as well as its eschatological accomplishment. Within the framework of this plan, God (through creation) forms a bond with all human beings. “And when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the Children of Adam their posterity and made them testify against themselves. [He said]: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we testify’”.17
As mentioned earlier, mercy is the most frequently mentioned trait God attributes to Himself. 113 of the 114 Qur’?nic surahs start with the phrase “In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.” In the Qur’?n, God describes His mercy as absolute. The only thing God ‘signs up for’ in the Qur’?n is mercy. Surah 6, verse 12, states, “He has prescribed to Himself mercy.” This statement is repeated within the same surah, in verse 54. In fact, the Qur’?n even goes a step further - not only does it present mercy as one of God’s attributes, it also portrays mercy as a divine character trait, indivisible from God himself, even equalling God. Surah 17, verse 110, reads, “Call on God or the ar-Ra?m?n [the All-Merciful]. By whatever name you call [Him], His are the most beautiful names.” Here, “God” and ar?Ra?m?n are used as synonyms. In surah 7, verse 56 of the Qur’?n the Arabic word for “close” or “near” is used, an adjective with masculine gender, which nevertheless is used to refer to ra?ma (God’s mercy), despite the feminine gender of this word. The verse therefore reads, “The mercy of God [ra?ma], he is near.” In order to fulfil grammatical criteria the verse would have to say, “The mercy of God, it (Arabic she) is near”. The Qur’?n always assigns masculine gender to the word for God (“Allah”); consequently, in the above-mentioned verse God equals mercy. Not only is God merciful, God is mercy.
Even the Qur’?n itself is referred to as mercy: surah 7, verse 52 states, “And We have brought them a Book (…) as a guidance and mercy to a people who believe.” This implies that any interpretation of the Qur’?n which is incompatible with the principle of mercy contradicts the Qur’?n itself and the intention of its revelations, and therefore must be rejected. Moreover, other scriptures, such as the stone tablets Moses received, are also referred to as mercy, “And when the anger of Moses abated, he took up the Tablets, in the text of which are guidance and mercy.”18
It follows that it is important to God to be perceived as the absolute merciful, even as mercy itself. It is astonishing that this God, the All-Merciful, is so thoroughly ignored in Islamic theology and popular belief!
The theological school of thought, which has established itself throughout Islamic tradition and is predominant to the present day, is the Ash’arite School, named after the scholar al-Ash’ar? (who died in 935 AD). One of the most famous representatives of this school of thought is the well-known Al-Ghaz?l? (who died in 1111 AD). Al-Ash’ar? distinguished between attributes relating to God’s being and attributes relating to God’s actions. Attributes referring to God’s being are eternal divine traits, which have always formed part of God’s being and always will be part of it. Attributes of action, on the other hand, are those attributes which depend on the world’s existence, and which describe God’s actions, not His being. Al-Ash’ar? lists the following seven attributes as referring to God’s being: God is omniscient, almighty, eternal, has absolute volition (nothing happens against His will), is all-hearing, all-seeing and all-speaking (His word is eternal).19 Despite the fact that the Qur’?n puts most emphasis on God being the All-Merciful, al-Ash’ar? fails to list mercy as one of God’s character attributes!
It was around the time of al-Ghaz?l? at the very latest that the Ash’arite image of God became the established concept amongst Muslim scholars. What is problematic about this vision of God is that it portrays Him as an arbitrary ruler. For al-Ghaz?l? it is legitimate “that God demand from His Servants what they are not capable of, and it is legitimate that He punish His Servants without them having done wrong, and in His decisions and actions He is not obliged to consider the better option for them; He is not obliged to reward good deeds and punish bad deeds, it is not reason which obliges man to do anything, only the Word is the basis of commands and interdictions. […] If God had not sent the Prophets [in order to reveal his message], this would not have been a reprehensible action on His part.”20
Al-Ghaz?l? criticises the Mu’tazilites, representing a rationalist Islamic school of thought whose most influential years were during the eighth and ninth century, for holding the opinion that God has an obligation to choose the better option for humanity. He claims that “they have restricted God in His actions by saying He were obliged to do the better thing, but we can hold many practical examples of God’s actions against them, which were not at all useful for His...
