The Concept of Islamic Tradition in Fazlur Rahman’s Thought

Abstract

When one considers the thought of the late Fazlur Rahman, it can be seen that his main endeavors are confined to “a true understanding of the Qur’an and the Sunnah” - in other words, a “recourse to the Qur’an and the Sunnah in order to get from there an understanding of and a guidance for solving our new problems.”l This point cannot be ignored by contemporary Muslims striving to overcome their social, political, legal, and religiomoral problems. However, it is not a simple and easy task to return to the Qur’an in order to have a true understanding of it, for there are many obstacles which ensue from history or traditional Islam itself. I will therefore elucidate and discuss what Rahman means by the concept of tradition and, more specifically, the Islamic tradition or, as he sometimes prefers to call it, the Muslim tradition. We cannot appreciate his views on his Qur‘anic methodology and on contemporary issues unless we sufficiently acquaint ourselves with what he means by Islamic tradition and the problems hund within Islamic civilization, by which he means the influence that Islamic tradition that had on Islamic civilization and its ultimate consequences on that civilization’s outcome. When we confront the Islamic heritage as a whole, it is important to elicit and bring into the open what “Islamic” and ”un-Islamic” meant at that particular point in the past, for this would appear to be crucial for a better understanding of the problem at hand. Once we identify those un-Islamic elements and then eliminate them from our way to development and modernization, we can confine our attention to solving our current problems in light of the Qur‘an and the Sunnah. We cannot find adequate answers to our current problems if we are incarcerated in a tradition which is, according to Rahman, contrary to the Qur’an’s dynamic and ongoing spirit. On the other hand, there is the naive view which claims that ...