Parashat B’shalach – Old School Ijtihad
Hi everybody, I’m back from Melbourne. I’ve been reinvigorated by eating vegemite, experiencing sunshine and seeing Carl Kennedy (he was having a drink on Fitzroy St. in case you were wondering where he’s been). Now I’m excited to get back into the swing of things.
This week I want to use the parasha to draw some conclusions that are derived differently than I usually do it. I just want to talk about some interesting stuff – I hope you enjoy.
Stuff I’ve written in RED
Stuff I’ve written as explanations or additions to the other stuff I wrote & articles I’ve found in BLUE
This week we read in Parashat B’Shalach about a story we all are very familiar with, the splitting of the sea and the escape from slavery led by Moses. I don’t want to go in-depth into meanings and values that we can extract from the story, but rather talk about how historical events shape the present, and relate that to the Danish caricature scandal that dominates the news at the moment.
A brief summary of the scandal:
A Danish newspaper publishes some cartoons, some of them are very offensive to lots of Muslims (e.g. the picture attached of Muhammed with a bomb as a turban), lots of Muslims burn the Danish flag and boycott their products and Danish citizens are told to get out of Muslim places (like the West Bank) as quick as possible.
Just as Moses splitting the sea and 40 years of wandering is deeply ingrained in the Jewish psyche, so too is Ijtihad (and the lack of it) a major factor in Islam.
Taken from: http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/ijtihad.html
Ijtihad (pronounced “ij-tee-had”) is Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking. In the early centuries of Islam, thanks to the spirit of ijtihad, 135 schools of thought thrived. Inspired by ijtihad, Muslims gave the world inventions from the astrolabe to the university. So much of we consider "western" pop culture came from Muslims: the guitar, mocha coffee, even the ultra-Spanish expression "Ole!" (which has its root in the Arabic word for God, "Allah")
What happened to ijtihad?
Toward the end of the 11th century, the "gates of ijtihad" were closed for entirely political reasons. During this time, the Muslim empire from Iraq in the east to Spain in the west was going through a series of internal upheavals. Dissident denominations were popping up and declaring their own runaway governments, which posed a threat to the main Muslim leader -- the caliph. Based in Baghdad, the caliph cracked down and closed ranks. Remember those 135 schools of thought mentioned above? They were deliberately reduced to four, pretty conservative, schools of thought. This led to a rigid reading of the Koran as well as to a series of legal opinions -- fatwas -- that scholars could no longer overturn or even question, but could now only imitate. To this very day, imitation of medieval norms has trumped innovation in Islam.
Irshad Manji wrote the stuff above. She also a wrote a book called “The Trouble With Islam Today” – I recommend you read it. What she is talking about is a significant event in Islamic history that informs the Muslim world today. Where once there was an acceptance and encouragement of independent thinking, today there are clearly problems with it. If a cartoon can lead people to violence then there needs to be change.
I don’t want to go in depth into my analysis of that situation, I’ve included a link to a great article written by Manji below if you want to read more. I want to end by asking a question that these issues bring up in my head.
What are the historical contexts and deeply ingrained norms in our lives that we need to reject/embrace if we are to be better people?
Shabbat Shalom, and as always, write back with your thoughts
Benji
Irshad Manji writing in Ha’aretz about the cartoon debacle.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/680091.html
Irshad Manji’s website
www.muslim-refusenik.com
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