Against the Cliché of the Islamic World as a Collective Society

In public discourse in the West, it is assumed that the Koran is the single foundation for Islamic faith, and other sources, which contribute to the diversity of the faith, are simply ignored. Marco Schöller, a scholar of Islam, has now translated the popular Hadith collection of al-Nawawi. An interview by Amin Farzanefar

Mr. Schöller, what is a Hadith?

Marco Schöller: The term refers to a message or information that is conveyed by word of mouth. As a specialist term it means a story by Muhammad or about him – what he said, did, or how he observed something, etc. These Hadiths have been passed down orally and only recorded in written form at a later date, being transmitted further as books or collections.

How authentic are the Hadiths?

Schöller: Here, Islamic scholarship takes a fundamentally different view than that of the Islamic world. There are hundreds of thousands of Hadiths in circulation. Muslims regard a few thousand as authentic. Islamic scholarship can neither prove or refute this, but recognizes that, in many cases, these texts are extremely old. A small number of Hadiths have attained canonical status, while six collections, and there are a further four or five, are considered to be fundamental to the faith and today are, in principle, no longer criticized.

Over and above these are thousands of collections, offering an enormous amount of material. There is such an abundance here that it makes historical classification very difficult.

Are Hadiths still read today? Do people having disputes consult family members well versed in the Hadiths? Do they turn to Hadith scholars? What role do Hadiths play in the faith?

Schöller: Yes, all these cases hold true. The most important thing to keep in mind is that Hadiths play a very important role in the lives of the faithful – depending on how pious they are, of course. Information on Hadiths is available everywhere. Many books, however, don't present them in the original collected form with their difficult language, but rather as a small selection. Depending on one's degree of literacy, learning by rote is still also practiced in the Arab world.

People rely on scholars, private teachers, or state run schools. The state employs scholars, muftis for instance, to provide guidance on certain issues. It would be difficult to find a Muslim that wasn't familiar with even just a few Hadiths of the Prophet.

Is this also the case for the younger generation?

Schöller: No longer here in Europe, of course, but this can be assumed to still apply in the Islamic world, where the environment, schools, and family connections help to maintain the practice. I believe that it just isn't possible to live in an Islamic country with the kinds of social and religious demarcations found in the West.

How well can these ancient Hadiths be applied to modern-day situations, to issues totally unknown when they were recorded? How is this done?

Schöller: The Hadiths are intended to help Muslims live their daily lives according to specific models and examples. Society continuously poses new questions – these can range from genetically manipulated food to abortion. Here is one example of how an over 1000-year-old Hadith can be applied today. The embryo in the womb only receives a soul after 40 days. Many Muslims interpret this as meaning the embryo is not yet human and can therefore be aborted within the first 40 days.

The West is currently very much occupied with the question of the essence of Islam. Can you infer from the Hadiths a particular spirit or essence of Islam?

Schöller: Western readers will find passages that are, if not irreconcilable, then extremely contrasting. In just about any collection you will find very general Hadiths, which don't seem in any way specific to Islam and that are permeated with an all-around humanistic spirit. On the other hand, there are Hadiths that provide extremely strict and detailed regulations that apply both to individuals and society at large. These seem very difficult to reconcile with each other.

Quite simply put, our Judeo-Christian background offers a dualism – Christianity as the ethical religion that has transcended the law, and Judaism as the religion of the law, which is lacking, however, in the area of ethics. In Islam, we have these two facets operating side-by-side. It would prove fatal to try and play them off against each other and it would go against the spirit of Islam.

You have translated the 40 Hadiths. Why these particular 40 and why this number?

Schöller: Such collections have been put together since around the years 850 – 900 A.D. At the time of Al-Nawawi, in the middle of the 13th century, it was quite usual to find collections consisting of around 40 Hadiths.

The "best of" collections have always been popular. They contain what one must absolutely know as a Muslim. In Arab countries, literature is sold on the streets, especially small volumes by local publishers, and one can always find Nawawi here. There are also many contemporary commentaries on the work. It was and remains very popular.

Who was the author and what kind of person was he?

Schöller: Al-Nawawi lived in Damascus until 1277. He died rather young, hardly forty years old. He was a very learned man, known not only for his piousness. He provided a commentary on one of the most well-known collections of Hadiths that exist. Nawawi was not partial to worldly matters and was therefore elevated by many to something akin to the rank of a saint, a "friend of God."

You refer to his continuous fasting, which perhaps contributed to his early death. He also kept a snake as a house pet. It doesn't seem as if he was particularly sociable. How is it then possible to rely on such a person to provide competent guidance on matters pertaining to everyday life?

Schöller: Such peculiarities were perfectly normal in Islamic culture. This can't be said often enough as it is today frequently forgotten and many people make claims to the contrary. A great deal was socially accepted at the time and personal eccentricities did not preclude one from also being accepted as a serious scholar.

You speak a great deal against the cliché of the Islamic world as a collective society.

Schöller: In every type of society, there are certain lifestyles oriented around the collective. Even we have, to some extent, very conformist societal structures and lifestyles – just consider consumerism and our media. This has always been the case in Islam as well.

The difference is that it was possible in the Islamic world to be different. It isn't so very long ago in Europe that such individuals were ostracized and could not practice a profession unless they led a rigid bourgeois lifestyle.

Does this mean that a far greater variety is possible within the religious horizon than what one usually assumes?

Schöller: The present-day situation is heading in the other direction. Certain aspects of modernity, of all things, play a role here. Modern media permits the comprehensive establishment of strict conventions. The media can nowadays project role models in every living room, in every head. That wasn't possible in the 13th century and, from our point of view, there was a much greater general openness for esoteric matters.

How can we concretely characterize life at that time? What was the fate of deviationists and dissenters?

Schöller: We can turn once again to an anecdote. In every large city, whether Damascus or Cairo, there were streets on the outskirts featuring bars. These were wine taverns for intellectuals, literary figures, scholars, and those who could afford such pleasures. Every Friday a devout man would appear and smash the wine jugs with his wooden staff. He was left alone, as everyone knew that he was a man of God. Despite this, it was still annoying – another Friday and here he is again! You can picture such a scenario anywhere at any time. Many have attempted to change society, yet there were always enough people who wouldn't go along – and it is still the same today.

Those groups hoping to accomplish something through violence – and here I not only mean terrorists, as there are plenty of groups in the Islamic world that want to change things – have never been in the majority. They aren't today and they never will be.

Heinz Halm writes in his book about the Fatimides that every year there were carnival-like festivities during which Muslims and Christians fraternized with each other. And then every two or three years, the Caliph issued a ban on such activities and required Christians and Jews to wear some form of identification. Yet, after a time, the old ways returned.

Schöller: Heinz Halm's books "The Empire of the Mahdi" and "The Caliphs of Cairo: The Fatimides in Egypt" offer some of the few attempts by a German oriental scholar to provide a depiction of life at the time. He shows how people actually lived, beyond all the Hadiths, collections, Friday prayers, etc. Once and a while, it is necessary to write a history of how people actually lived and take a step away from pure theoretical discourse, as important as this may be.

Interview: Amin Farzanefar

Marco Schöller, born in 1968, holds a Doctorate in Philosophy. He lectures at the Oriental Seminar of the University of Cologne, Germany. His research focuses of the history of Islamic-Arabic thought, culture, and mentality in the premodern and early modern periods.

Translated from the German by John Bergeron

Qantara.de

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