You can read it here: http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/moonlight.htm
I’ll just be randomly picking highlights of this article and commenting.
One thing I found intersting was the relationship between the following sentence and one of the newer contentions:
“The current prevalence of a kind of Islamic McCarthyism, often hysterical in its attempts to reduce a complex and enraging modernity to a monomaniac opposition, is simply another indication of how far the Islamists have travelled from the tradition. “
And Contentions [8] #4:
The false Salafism: an unsuccessful flight from complexity.
Although not mentioned in the moonlight article, a relationship between the Islamists that are described in the article and the Salafis as portrayed in the Contention is undeniable. Can we simply replace Salafism with the Islamists within the article? I don’t think so, it seems to me that the source of complexity is different for both parties.
Where the Salafis may be running from complexity that is internal to Islam (the complex legal and spiritual sciences), the Islamists that Shaykh discusses in this article are described as running from a complex modern world. Although it may be obvious with the mention of names such as Sayyid Qutb, it seems important to point out that with a similar fear of complexity Salafi’s would empathize with or even be a facet of the Islamists mentioned in the article.
October 30th, 2004 - 10:55 am
Asalaamualaykum wa rahmatullah,
Ramadhan Kareen.
It seems what is being advocated here is that Sayyid Qutb’s thoughts and works are the foundational pillar, upon which, modern day terrorism has flourished. However, being familiar with Qutb’s works, though maybe not all, I fail to see a link between them and the barbaric acts that are being committed today in the name of Islam. The similtude of holding Qutb responsible for terrorism would be like holding Ali ibn Abi Talib responsible for Shi’ism.
November 10th, 2004 - 6:15 pm
Assalamo alaikum!
Seems to me that the article (moonlight.htm), as well as other writings by the author, is itself in danger of over-simplifying Salafism.
Not all people who feel an attraction to the Salafi school of thought necessarily do so out of a desire to simplify Islam into black and white–although I don’t deny that this might indeed be the reason for some of them.
I know some brothers who are staunch Salafis, and yet they still have respect for classical Islamic scholarship, and do not appear to think that the wheel has to be invented anew, or nobody had ever shaped the wheel correctly before their group came along.
I think that they think that Salafism is merely the anti-dote to the ‘popular piety’ (Urs, Mawlid, Chehlum, Mausoleums, Saint Worship, Superstitions, Talismans, Bid’aat, etc.) that they find neither palatable nor in line with traditional Islam (the austere monotheism of the Sahaba).
If my understanding of their mindset is at all accurate, can we honestly describe their reasons for becoming Salafis as a peculiarly modernist desire to do away with past scholarly interpretations of the holy writ and start from a clean sheet of paper?
Thoughts?
Wassalam,
Asim
February 19th, 2005 - 10:07 am
Asalaamu alaykum,
In reference to Asim’s: “I think that they think that Salafism is merely the anti-dote to the ‘popular piety’ (Urs, Mawlid, Chehlum, Mausoleums, Saint Worship, Superstitions, Talismans, Bid’aat, etc.) that they find neither palatable nor in line with traditional Islam (the austere monotheism of the Sahaba).”
The “austere monotheism of the Sahaba” was replete with examples of what now might erroneously be considered a reprehensible innovation by a Salafi. The Sahaba collected the Prophet’s (Allah bless him and give him peace) hair, water from ablution, and personal items for their baraka. The urs, mawlids, talismans, and love (not worship) of the awliya are but examples of this yearning for baraka.
Not to mention their validity in every school of Sunni jurisprudence.
Wasalaam,
Atif
December 27th, 2005 - 6:31 am
[...] The full article can be viewed at masud.co.uk. Some comments on this article can be found on the Mind, Body, Soul blog, with a critique and response on the related blogs Stray Reflections and Noor e Madinah, respectively. [...]