IDE ACADEMY 2021-2022 | LECTURE NOTES | 22nd OCTOBER 2021

• Prophet Muhammad has solved the problems and questions that were directed at him by ijtihad (juristic reasoning), sometimes by consulting his companions (ashab), and sometimes by utilizing social experiences.  
• As Al-Shatibi has said, although the Arabic society was illiterate and the Islamic shariah was born an illiterate shariah, revelations descended to a language that human beings had already been using. These revelations were addressed to the entity called human, and as a result of this, nass has eventually become the text.
• After this, the nature of three things has changed: the nature of nass, the nature of language, and the nature of humans. Accordingly, not everyone has reached a consensus on every subject and different opinions have arisen. The sahaba might have interpreted an ayah or Prophet Muhammad’s sayings differently.
• The sahaba are the generation of testimony, for they have witnessed the descending and carrying out of revelations. Tabi’un (successors of the sahaba) is the generation of transmission (riwaya), and tabi’ al-tabi’in (next generation after the successors of the sahaba) is comparatively the generation of transmission but more likely the generation of critical reflection/reason (diraya). The generations of testimony, transmission, and critical reflection/reason. In the generations of transmission and critical reflection/reason, both methods have interchangeably become prominent from time to time. Thus, the schools of Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra’y have emerged hereof. 
• After the decease of Prophet Muhammad, the concepts of eternity, finis and universality are the values and decrees that Islam has brought, and these will enhance the globality and continuity of Islam. However, these values and decrees must first give life to knowledge, knowledge must give life to sciences and sciences must give life, in the light of Qur’an and Sunnah, to all the Muslims.
• Some of the fundamental needs of Muslims necessarily create several sciences which are resourced by Qur'an and Hadith. These sciences are:
  1. The understanding and interpreting of Qur’an, which is the embodied book of revelations generating Islam. Consequently, sciences of recitation of Qur’an (Qira’at), Tafsir (exegesis), and interpretation of Qur’an (Ta’wil)were born.
  2. After the conquests, the massive conversion of Persians (non-Arabs) to Islam and the absence of short vowel marks (harakat) in Qur’anic readings has led to the birth of linguistics.
  3. Muslims have encountered different cultures and civilizations. They had to explain to them what Islam and monotheism were, how Allah exists as the one true God and how to pray to Allah. Hence, the science of Kalam was born at this point to explain these.
  4. Muslims ensure their entity by Kalam, Aqa’id and monotheism, and they ensure their validity by Fiqh, law, and justice. They also started the formation of hadith science by developing criteria on which information is authentic and which one is not.
  5. Muslims had to offer a justice system to the places they had been. Along with this, ibadah (worship) must be told and taught. Muslims first applied to nasses when they had encountered new problems. However, for subjects out of nass, they have solved their issues by grounding on ijtihad and qiyas (syllogism). Such reasons have led to the founding of Fiqh. Therefore, entity, validity, and authenticity have necessarily created several sciences in the Islamic world. During conquests, Muslims have applied to the studies of history and geography even though those studies were not in written form back then, and later, the studies of history and geography have also become written studies.

• Holy Qur’an has given three important missions to Muslims. The first one is servitude (Ubudiyyah), the second one is caliphates’ appointing a successor for themselves (Istihlaf), and the third one is prosperity (Umran). Servitude is being a subject to Allah. But it does not only consist of praying and fasting. Caliphates’ appointing a successor for themselves is ensuring divine justice and the dominance of divine will on earth. Prosperity is to reconstruct the earth.
• Muslims did not have an ontology in a systematical sense while they were constructing the early revelation-centric sciences. But this does not mean that Muslims do not possess a thorough understanding of human beings, existence, and nature. Monotheism on its own is a representation of the universe. Monotheism on its own is an understanding of human beings. The concepts of servitude, caliphates’ appointing a successor for themselves, and prosperity on their own are major philosophies. Thus, one cannot say that the early sciences are apart from these concepts.
• The early revelation-centric sciences are divided into two: essential and natural sciences, or supreme and instrumental sciences, or the sciences of purpose and cause. An important division has emerged here. Later, many books have been written about the classification of these sciences.