Texts of Islam

Development of Muslim Theology: III: Theology: Chapter I

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This is an academic work of Islamic intellectual history, likely a chapter from a broader survey of Muslim religious thought written in the early 20th century (the prose style and framing suggest a Western orientalist tradition). The text argues that three principles — tradition (*naql*), reason (*aql*), and mystical intuition (*kashf*) — form the continuous, interwoven threads of all Islamic theological development, and that Islam, contrary to a common misconception, retains genuine capacity for growth and renewal. The author traces the origins of early Islamic sects, focusing on the Murji'ites (who deferred moral judgment to God and thus provided theological cover for Umayyad rule) and the Kharijites (who demanded rigorous moral purity and condemned all who fell short). A distinctive claim is that Islam's spiritual core — its acute God-consciousness, fatalism, and world-renunciation — was significantly shaped by pre-Islamic Christian hermits scattered across the Arabian desert, whom the author connects to the *Hanifs* and to Muhammad's own formative religious imagination. The text also offers a notably political reading of early theological disputes, showing how questions about faith, sin, and salvation were inseparable from questions about legitimate rulership and the ethics of rebellion.

Development of Muslim Theology: III: Theology: Chapter I

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