No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam

by Reza Aslan

“Is the Quran created by God, or is it uncreated and coeternal with God?”

“This religion is a science, so pay close attention to those from whom you learn it.”

RELIGIONS BECOME INSTITUTIONS when the myths and rituals that once shaped their sacred histories are transformed into authoritative models of orthodoxy (the correct interpretation of myths) and orthopraxy (the correct interpretation of rituals), though one is often emphasized over the other.

orthopraxy and orthodoxy are intimately bound together in Islam, meaning questions of theology, or kalam, are impossible to separate from questions of law, or fiqh.

to form strict guidelines that would establish exactly who was and who was not a Muslim. The result of their labors became what is now commonly known as the Five Pillars of Islam.

“I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together.”

Because tawhid insists that God is One, a group of Muslim mystics called the Sufis will claim that there can be nothing apart from God. God is, according to the Sufi master Ibn al-Arabi, the only being with real existence: the only reality.

The Rationalist Ulama of the Mu‘tazilah argued that God, while fundamentally indefinable, nevertheless exists within the framework of human reason.

The Ash‘ari argued that human reason, while certainly important, must nevertheless be subordinate to the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet.

The Ash‘ari considered reason to be unstable and changing, while the prophetic and scriptural traditions—especially as they were defined by the Traditionalist Ulama—were stable and fixed.

Indeed, the Ash‘ari often responded to the rational incongruities and internal contradictions that resulted from their rigid interpretation of religious doctrine by cultivating a formula of bila kayfa, loosely translated as “Don’t ask why.”

As a text, the Quran is more than the foundation of the Islamic religion; it is the source of Arabic grammar.

partly in response to al-Ma’mun’s disastrous Inquisition, the Traditionalist position became the dominant position in Sunni Islam.

belief in the eternal, uncreated word of God has led to the widespread conviction among Muslims that the Quran cannot be translated from its original language.

Even today, Muslims of every culture and ethnicity must read the Quran in Arabic, whether they understand it or not.

the Rationalists stressed the primacy of human reason in determining not just the essence of the Quran, but also its meaning and, most importantly, its historical context. To the Traditionalists, the eternal and uncreated nature of the Quran made it pointless to talk of historical context or original intent when interpreting it. The Quran has never changed and will never change; neither should its interpretation.

This view of the Quran as static and unchanging became increasingly problematic as the Revelation gradually transformed from merely the principle of moral guidance in the Muslim community to the primary source of Islam’s Sacred Law: the Shariah.

the Shariah is meant to regulate only one’s external actions; it has little to do with inner spirituality.

As rigorous as scholars like al-Bukhari and Ibn al-Hajjaj were in scrutinizing each hadith for the signs of correct transmission, the fact is that their method lacked any attempt at political or religious objectivity.

“It was not Muhammad himself who defined the Sunna, but rather a memory of him.”

The Ulama associated with these schools entrenched themselves as the sole authority of acceptable Islamic behavior and the sole interpreters of acceptable Islamic beliefs.

The Quran itself clearly indicates that while its message is eternal, it was revealed in response to very specific historical situations.

there can be no question whatsoever that the Shariah was developed within a clear historical context, that it evolved in response to specific historical circumstances, and that it was privy to the same social, political, and economic factors that have influenced all legal codes in all cultures

the principal error of the Traditionalists is the intolerably heretical belief that a constantly changing and obviously man-made legal tradition built upon the wildly conflicting interpretations of half a dozen competing schools of law, each of which relies on drastically different textual and historical sources, should be treated as sacred and divine. Such a belief is, in a word, shirk.

To say the Shariah is divine because the Quran is divine is akin to arguing that water and wine are the same,

ritual, rather than myth, can fashion a faith.

“A tear shed for Husayn washes away a hundred sins,” the Shi‘ah say.

the prophet transmits the Message of God, while the Imam translates it for human beings.

a common tactic used by all sectarian movements that wish to connect themselves to their parent religion.

In many ways, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was the inevitable conclusion of two previous popular revolutions—the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–11 and the Nationalist Revolution of 1953—both of which were suppressed by foreign governments (the first by the Russians and, to a lesser extent, the British; the second, as mentioned, by the United States) that wished to maintain their grip on Iran’s natural resources.

Khomeini argued, the Faqih is no mere secular leader; he is the heir to the “Hidden Imam.” As such, he does not administer divine justice, he is divine justice.

Iran’s politicized form of Shi‘ism has perhaps irreparably damaged the perception that most Iranians—70 percent of whom are under the age of thirty and thus have no memory of prerevolutionary Iran—have of religion in general and Islam in particular.

Islam, according to Sufism, is merely the means through which the believer can destroy his ego so as to become one with the creator of the heavens and the earth.

Like Shi‘ism, Sufism began as a reactionary movement against both the Imperial Islam of the Muslim Dynasties and the rigid formalism of Islam’s “orthodox” learned class, the Ulama.

Islam, like all religions, can only claim to point humanity to God, whereas Sufism’s goal is to thrust humanity toward God.

Despite the occasionally violent Shi‘ite and Sunni accusations to the contrary, Sufis are Muslims. They pray as Muslims. They worship as Muslims. They use Muslim symbols and metaphors and follow Muslim creeds and rituals.

Sufism is a religious movement that can only be described; it cannot be defined.

The four travelers represent humanity in its search for an inner spiritual need it cannot define and which it expresses in different ways. The linguist is the Sufi, who enlightens humanity to the fact that what it seeks (its religions), though called by different names, are in reality one identical thing.

human beings cannot be given the secret of ultimate reality, for such knowledge cannot be shared, but must be experienced through an arduous inner journey toward self-annihilation.