The Spiritual Background of Early Islam

THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY ISLAM

THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY ISLAM STUDIES IN ANCIENT ARAB CONCEPTS

BY

M. lVI. BRAVMANN

94(=411.21)+28-9 BRAVMANN spiritua

417356000002

LEIDEN

E. J. BRILL 1972

CONTENTS Preface

VII

I. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam and the History of its Principal Concepts A) "Muruwah and Din" B) >Jslam. . . . . . . . . . . C) '!man. . . . . . . . . . . D) Ad-Dunya wal-Bu ad-Dunya wal-' A!Jirah .

f.

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II. Heroic Motives in Early Arabic Literature . . . A) The Concept of 'Amr and the Drive to Manly Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . B) Aims and Values of Man's Activity .

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III. Sunnah and Related Concepts . . . . A) Sunnah and Sirah . . . . . . . . B) The Concrete ("Material") Character of Sunnah C) The Verb sanna in the Meaning "to assign, to determine" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D) The Hereditary Character of Sunnah . . . E) The Responsibility of the Originator of a Sunnah for All Later Acts . . . . . . . F) Testimonies for the Early Existence of "the Sunnah of the Prophet". . . . . . . . . . G) Pre-Islamic Sunnah re-created by the Prophet H) <Jlm and Ra>y I) I gtihad J) Igma
anic Concept al-gizyatu atihi Labida "he helped Labid to display his muriiwah". What is meant by this, is clearly apparent from the poem itself (l. I2), in agreement with the preceding prose passage: 'Aba W ahbin gazaka llahu !Jayran * nal:z,arnaha wa'ataslamta fin-nagadiiti min rjikri. 1 I read the sentence thus: 'utni 'alayka bima aslama (''defy death")-and the elliptic expression 'aslama thus became a linguistic cliche in a popular Islamic sense. But even in its religious application the elliptic expression is also found in contexts which suggest that it comprises at the same time 1 Compare :;abara abridged from :;abara najsahu (c£. below n. 4) and many similar expressions. 2 For the special use of dariba in this passage compare Ibn Hisam, p. 893, l. 7· 3 A parallel expression to rabbu l-masriqi, is rabbu l-masariqi (ib., p. 572, I I; Qur)an 37, 5). G. \Veil, in his translation of Ibn Hisam (vol. 2, pp. 23 and II9) translates both times: "der Herr des Ostens". Our expression must be interpreted as an abbreviation of rabbu l-masriqi wal-magribi (Qur)an 26, 28) "Lord of the East and the \iV est", an expression of the type called per merismum. Compare the dual al-masriqani, used in the same sense (Qur'Cin 43, 37). 4 This sentence is thus completely identical, in both content and grammatical structure, with a sentence referring to those killed in the battle of Mu )tah (Ibn Hisam, p. 8oo, l. 6): :;abaru biMu'tata lilliihi nujusahum "they fought heroically and sacrificed themselves at Mu)tah for the sake of God" (see above, n. r). [Cf. the phrase barjala muhgata najsihi quoted below, p. 22 l. 7 .. For the expression "the blood of one's soul" cf. Gen. 9, 45; Deut. 12, 23].

THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY ISLAM

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the full original meaning; cf. (Tabari II, I; 30I, 33 ff.): 'aqulu kama qala 'al:J/lt l-' Awsi libni 'ammihi walaqiyahu wahwa yuridu nu$rata rasuli llahi jaqala lahu 'ayna tar]habu ja'innaka maqtulun jaqala: sa'amif,i wama bil-mawti 'arun 'ala ljata* >ir]a ma nawa z~aqqan wagahada muslim a** wa'asa r-rigala $-$alil:z,ina binajsihi* wafaraqa matburan yagussu wayurgima "I say as a man from the Banu Aws said to his cousin when he met him as he was going on his way to help the messenger of God; he said: "Whither art thou going? Surely thou wilt not escape death" .-And the other repljed: "I shall certainly go. There is no dishonour in death for any man, when he strives after truth, defies death in battle and helps worthy men with his own soul (by the sacrifice of his own life) ... ''. Mus lim must here be semantically related to f,iihada on the one hand, to 'as a binajsihi on the other hand. This meaning of the term in the context of the above two verses is confirmed by parallel passages containing similar expressions, as (Balaguri, 'Ansab al-' Asraj,V, p. 37I, 7): wayuqalu 'anna aslama fulanan "deliver up, betray, someone", I derive, from the above-mentioned meaning of sara, its special use in cases like (Surah z, v. 203): wamina n-nasi man yasri nafsahu btiga>a marif,iiti lliihi; sara thus implies here the idea of "heroic sacrifice"' "defiance of death". The customary interpretation of the expression is unsatisfactory; cf., for instance, Torrey in his study The Commercialtheological terms in the Koran, p. 38 ("The believer is represented as selling himself, the price being the mar¢at Allah and the purchaser Allah") as well as-with regard to the designation sari(n), pl. surat, sarun, for the religious-political sect of the ljarigites-Brunnow (Charidjiten, p. z8), Wellhausen (Religiospolitische Oppositionsparteien im alten I slam, p. r6, 1. I4-I5 and p. zg) and Levi della Vida

(EI, article Kharidjites). The idea that the true believer buys (wins) Paradise by gihad occurs, of course, in the Qur'an (e.g., Surah g, v. rr2ff.), as well as in later literature; jt likewise originates in secular conceptions prevalent in the pre-Islamic period; cf., e.g. ('Amr b. Kultum, ed. Krenkow, no. IO, v. 3): wasara biJ:tusni J:taditihi 'an yuqtala "and he sold his life for the price of fame", etc. In contrast to cases of this kind, the expression sara nafsahu (or: J:t,ayiitahu), e.g. in the case mentioned above, has an absolute meaning (requires no dative complement) exactly like 'aslama najsah~"i. In the same way we have to interpret the following verse of the early Islamic period (Ka anjusahum (Qur>an 4, r 04).

2I

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THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY ISLAM

THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY ISLAM

'Ansab al-Asraf, V, 364, g; cf. above, p. 13, l. 1z: >aslamii muhgati "defy >anfusihim); thus also tabaddala "squander oneself" death" (in Sanfarah's Lanziyat al-abdulu fil-hayga'i fa'innani* lahii fi siwa l-hayga>i gaynt badiili "and I squander my face 2 in the turmoil of the battle, while outside the battle I do not squander it (i.e. preserve it)". The special sense of appears clearly from another source (lfamasah, p. v. 3 = Ibn Hisam, p. 837, 6): n'Vt<arri¢u s-suyiifa >ida wugt7han la lilitami "vVe present to the swords, while faces which are not presented to slaps". It was customary, in battle, to expose the face and the head, as appears, inter alia, from the following passage (T abari, III, I; 430, 6): fa 'alqaytu si l-qinaakun * li>aksifahii 'illa li'i!Jda

l-'a?a'imi "And I thre\'V from my head the veil, and I am not prepared to expose it except on a momentous occasion (i.e. in battle)" .1 By means of the expression badala waghahii = badala nafsahiJ, "sacrifice one's life, defy death", we understand the Qur>anic expression >aslama waghahii lillahi (Surah 2, v. Io6): waghahii stands there for nafsahii: "He abandoned his soul (his life) for the sake of God" (as against Horovitz, Koran. Unters., p. 54). In the verse (of I:Iakim b. 'Umayyah, in Ibn Hisam, p. I82,lastline): wa'uslimu waghi lilJilahi waman#qi "I give away for the sake of God my life and my speech", the war by means of the sword is supplemented by the word, which was of great importance in the heathen period and especially in the fighting for lVIul,lammad; cf., e.g., the verse (of (Abdallah b. >Unays, in Ibn Hisam, p. g82, 19): wakuntu >ida hamma n-nabiyu bikafirin * sabaqtu 'ilayhi bil-lisani wabil-yadi "when the Prophet lusted (with hostile intent) for an infidel, I hastened to him with tongue and hand". 2 The isolated expression yuslimu waghahii >ila llahi (Surah 3I, 2I) is not to be regarded as a mere variant of the above expression with lillahi, but >ita conveys a special nuance, which is elucidated by. the verse quoted above (p. 2I, l. 13) ; ... kiinii kaman yasri l-!Jayata taqarruban 'ila mali kin ... "Be like one who defies death, that you may come near to God ... ". Whereas the latter passage states the special sense in full, the phrase under consideration, while completely identical in meaning, forms an ellipsis on a pattern frequent in, and particular to, Arabic (cf. Brockelmann, Grundriss d. vgl. Gramm. d. semit. Spr., II, p. 385, 11. I6-2I). All this shows that the name of the Muslim religion expresses its principle. This principle is rooted in the Arab character and appears everywhere in early, pre-Islamic literature. This concept, as far as it occurs in early literature, is indubitably an end in itself: a man should not give himself up to the enemy but fight till death

1 A synonym of barjil, used in the same peculiar sense, is mitlaf (agent noun of >atlafa "squander"). Cf. (Hurjayl, no. IS, v. 2, ed. Kosegarten, p. 34): >abf, l-harj/imati nabin bil-'a:/imati mitlafu l-karimati la siq[un wala wani "(a man) not tolerating an act of violence, left unaffected by severe trials (literally: causing severe trials to rebound from him), squandering the noble (soul), no worthless fellow, no weakling". (As against the scholion, ib., p. 34, ult, which interprets al-ka11imah as the female camel slaughtered by the hero to feed his guests. This conception seems to have been accepted Noldeke, Zur Gramm. d. class. Arab., p. 31, who translates: "einer, der ... , das Kostbare verschwendet, ... ''). The sarne idea is expressed in the following passage (Ibn Hisam, p. 89, ll. r4-46): (r4) wabakki 'ala kulli jayyarjin . .. (r5) ... nabin bil-'agimati (r6) ... marj/i l-'azimati mitlafi l-karimati "And bewail each munificent (man), ... unaffected by severe trials, ... persistent in his resolution and squandering his noble (soul)". (As against Weil's (I, 68) translation of the last expression: "reich an edlen Taten" .-The plural karimat following the singular mitlaj is occasioned by kull) .-For the full expression nafsun karimatun cf. eAMal, p. 246, z): yuhinu wara'a l-[1,ayyi nafsan karimatan. 2 Lyall n. r) maintains that waghi in the phrase 'abrjulu 'aslamtu waghi (see below), is synonymous with nafsi the sense "myself" (he compares it also with Ethiopic re'es), thus regarding it as just another formal term expressing this pronominal (reflexive) concept. Lyall was overlooking the fact that wagh appears instead of nafs only in connection with "defiance of death (in battle)" as is shown also by the other passages quoted here.

1

Cf. also Ibn Hisam, p. 839, 1. 2o; Jfamasah, p. 326, v. 4· See also ib., 1. r8; lfassan b. Tabit, no. z, v. r; Labid, ed. Brockelmann, no. 39, v. 67 (p. r6), etc. Comp., e.g., also (Tab. 2, 497); jala nal;mu na:;arniihu bi'aydi1~a wala gadalna (so to be read instead of gadalna of the text) 'anhu bi 'alsinatina ''we did not protect him with our hands and did not defend him with our tongues" (as against the reading given in BaHiguri, 'Ansab al-'Asraf, vol. V, ed Goitein, p. zos, 8: .. . wala !Jarjrjalna 'anhu 'alsinatana with a rather peculiar justification of the negation by the editor, ib. "Annotations"). Gadala, inf. gidal, is the typical verb to denote a wordy battle. 2

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THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY ISLAM

(compare: qiUala J:tatta qutila "he fought until he was killed")-this is the human ideal in the original Arab conception. It is almost a disgrace to die a natural death. The Islamic concept differs from the early Arab essentially secular concept only in that the supreme ideal, to which the fight is consecrated, is God. I consider it an important question, which it is yet difficult to answer conclusively, whether this concept, in its new form, is pre-eminently concerned with the religious ideal (Allah) or whether the original ideal, the fight until death as an end in itself, remains the more important aspect, or in other words, which is essential and which accessory. It would seem to me that for a certain period the basic element, defiance of death as an end in itself, remains the chief aspect even in early Islam. The actually religious aspiration was subordinate to this primary impulse. The characteristic term 'islam = "self-sacrifice, defiance of death", as shown below (p. 27 ff. and p. 32 ff.), is closely connected with other early Islamic concepts. We refer to a few additional passages which testify to the close relationship between the tern1 >islam on the one hand, and the terms gihad, {tarb, qital "warlike activity", on the other hand. Many of these passages include the phrase fi l-'islami. We quote the following line from an elegy by l:fassan b. Tabit (in Ibn Hisam, Sirah, p. 629, 14): wakana fi l-'islami ria tudra>in yakfika jaqda l-qai!Jwanuna fi l-' I slami wasuraka>una fi $-$ihri wagiranuna fi d-dari wayaduna