Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

[muriel_volestrangler]

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.
...
But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam.

It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted.
...
As part of its aggressive programme of renewal, Turkey has given theological training to 450 women, and appointed them as senior imams called "vaizes".
...
They have also taken an even bolder step - rejecting a long-established rule of Muslim scholars that later (and often more conservative) texts override earlier ones.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7264903.stm

And a commentary on this - which is a bit sceptical about how much this will matter, outside Turkey, anyway:

In the Sunni branch of Islam (to which most Muslims belong), there are four main "schools" of law - Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali. Their relative influence varies from country to country but the dominant one in Turkey is Hanafi.

One of the key differences between these schools is in the reliance they place on the hadith. The Hanafi school tends to be more wary of the hadith than the other schools, with the result that its judgments are often more flexible.

It's not terribly surprising, therefore, that a critical review of the hadith has been taking place in Hanafi-dominated Turkey. There would be more grounds for excitement if it was happening - say - in Saudi Arabia where the Hanbali school prevails and scholars produce the most conservative legal judgments, often based on literalist readings of the Qur'an and uncritical acceptance of the hadith.

One criticism of the Hanafi school is that its built-in flexibility it has historically made its religious rulings susceptible to political influence. The Hanbali school, on the other hand, because it relies so heavily on the hadith, is relatively impervious to political influence; in Saudi Arabia it tends to control politics rather than the other way round.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2008/02/islamic_newspeak.html

[Warpy]

1. High time this was done and it had to be done somewhere

and the Turks are the logical ones to do it. The Saudis will just have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the thirteenth century and into this one. Most of the people are ready, I think, and only the extreme conservatism of the Wahab royal family is holding that nation back.

Early Islam was a miracle of tolerance and women's rights when compared to the rest of the world. That such a period was also Islam's golden age is no accident.

Unfortunately, all the repressive tribal stuff that Mohammad tried to overturn gradually crept back in, thanks to the efforts of mediocre men turned clerics.

[aquart]

2. Exactly.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. You have that right

In its Golden Age, Islam was far more tolerant and progressive than the rest of the world. One of those "mediocre men turned clerics" who helped bring back the tribal stuff was the man who started Wahhabism. He was mad when his teacher would not make him a shaykh and went out on his own, preaching in favor of prejudice and intolerance. Somewhere my husband found a letter that the man's brother wrote to him, chastizing him for doing such a terrible thing. I'll have to ask for it.

BTW, I've heard (though not read) that one of the hadiths has Mohammed saying that the greatest threat to Islam will come from within the faith rather than from outside influences. I think that this is the truth.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. A lot of folks probably don't understand what the Hadith are

They are reported things that Mohammed said and did. But there are many many reporters--some were very reliable, like his wife Ayesha--while others weren't (they were reporting things second and third hand, and hadn't actually been there when the event took place). And then there is the interpretation of the event and what was really meant. Many take everything literally, and don't take into account the situation in which something was done or said.

One example of this is the notion by fundamentalists that musical instruments are not allowed in Islam. My husband, who frequents a Muslim talk board, got into an argument about this (like most Sufis of the Chistia lineage, we are musicians). The fundamentalists cited a hadith where Mohammed asked some revelers at a party who were singing and playing instruments to be quiet--because one of his companions was upstairs sick in bed! My husband argued back that the point of the hadith was to show compassion for the sick, not to ban music! And he went on to point out an Ayesha hadith where the Prophet congratulated one of the companions for getting a flute as a gift. Why would he do this if flutes were to be forbidden, my husband asked. The fundamentalists hemmed and hawed and then said it didn't matter, musical instruments were forbidden.

A lot of Muslim Turks are Sufis. Bet they are involved in this work.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. The Wikipedia has a decent article on Hadith

Hadith.

[maxsolomon]

6. It is no longer The Golden Age of Islam

good luck to the Turks. they're going to need it.

maybe christians could re-visit the decision to include the OT & Revelation in the Bible. in retrospect, it doesn't seem helpful to Jesus' assertion that God is Love.

[Warpy]

9. They need to kick that fraud and huckster Paul out while they're at it

and maybe put the Gnostic Gospels back in. Of course, that would be inconvenient and force a change in a lot of dogma that has gone under the bridge, but it would be nice if the faith rediscovered its roots and adjusted itself accordingly.

Warmongers would find it much harder to justify a war with the god of the Gnostics on its side.

[supernova]

7. Way long overdue

and much luck and good wishes to the people involved with this project.

[Cheeseburger Walrus]

8. A game of telephone...

far outlasting it's usefulness. Cut the cord and be done with it.