Interview with Asma Afsaruddin (Part 3)

Islam: Introduction

World Faith

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Information: Part 3 of our interview with Asma Afsaruddin (professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame). In this final section she talks about the influence of Islam in the western world, learning about and from Islam, and her current research and writing projects.

Steve: Your work suggests that you believe very passionately in the power of education to change things (for the better) in the world. Can you say something about this.

Asma: The preaching of every major religion is grounded in the belief that learning the truth and transmitting this learning changes the individual and the people around him or her. All the prophets were primarily teachers, and their mission was predicated on the hope and belief that humans are ultimately receptive to wisdom and knowledge and therefore receptive to their messages. The Qur'an places great emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge as a means of knowing God, and about our true selves and the purpose of our lives. Furthermore, the Prophet Muhammad said in a hadith, "Seek knowledge even unto China!"

Another saying of his makes learning a religious obligation for both men and women. Muslims took such counsel to heart and created an epistemic revolution starting in the seventh century, often traveling far and wide in pursuit of knowledge, a hallowed activity known in Arabic as rihla fi talab al-'ilm ("traveling in search of knowledge"). As a consequence, Muslims starting in the eighth century embraced the ancient learning of classical Greece, Persia, India, and the ancient Near East and the world of Islam became pre-eminent in the medieval period in philosophy, the sciences, medicine, belles-lettres, etc.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) - An eminent figure in Islamic learning. He wrote 450 books on numerous subjects in the fields of medicine, astronomy, logics, mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy, the natural sciences, and theology in the tenth and eleventh century CE. The serious study of Aristotle began with Albertus Magnus (1206-1280), who was heavily influenced by Avicenna's commentaries on his work. It is believed that both Magnus and also his student St. Thomas Aquinas, were greatly influenced by Avicenna's version of Aristotelian philosophy.

When medieval Europe borrowed much of this learning from the Islamic world, it too went through a similar epistemic revolution.

'Without doubt, education is the key to individual and social transformation. The current disarray in many parts of the Islamic world stems from having lost this pre-eminence in learning and from a lack of resources in general to foster a revival of such learning. Education must therefore remain a priority in Muslim-majority societies (as elsewhere).'

Steve: Can one learn from Islam, without being a Muslim?

Asma: I hope so, just as Muslims can expect to learn from other religions without converting to them. One of my favorite verses in the Qur'an (49:13) states the following, "O humankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you might get to know one another. The noblest of you in God’s sight is the one who is most righteous." The Qur'an clearly advocates in this verse that we learn about and from one another, because our God-ordained differences and diversity are a source of infinite mercy and blessings for us. I hope Muslims in particular will heed their own scripture today and recoup their predecessors' joyous embrace of learning and wisdom, wherever they encountered it, and set a good example for others.

Steve: I love that idea of being created differently so that we might get to know each other. What a wonderful (and unique) perspective on things.

Steve: I want to end this interview by asking you about some of the current projects you are involved with/working in. First of all, could you say something about 'Religion Compass', and how you got involved with it.

Asma: Religion Compass aims to provide reliable, scholarly, and accessible information online to a general public about various religions and their practitioners. I decided to get involved with it because I realized the valuable role it is destined to play in shaping public opinion, and in fostering a general public literacy about Islam in particular.

Steve: That sounds great! I for one am looking forward to the development of this important online resource. What's next in terms of your other writing projects?

Asma: I just finished a book titled The First Muslims: History and Memory (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2007), which discusses the impact of the lives of many prominent men and women from roughly the first three centuries of Islam, starting with the Prophet Muhammad, his Companions, and the subsequent two generations of Muslims, a period roughly between 570-855 CE. These early Muslims are collectively called "the Pious Forbears," (al-salaf al-salih) whose religious practices and personal lives are deemed to be paradigmatic and worthy of emulation by later generations of Muslims. The book explores how the salaf have been configured and reconfigured by later generations of Muslims as "iconic" figures to legitimize many religious and political projects through time.

Front cover of The First Muslims: History and Memory

'The book concludes by discussing in detail how the salaf are invoked particularly by modernists and hard-core Islamists today in their discourses centered on "hot-button" issues, such as jihad, gender roles, and democratic governance.'

I am also currently engaged in research for my third authored book, tentatively titled Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought and Practice. The Carnegie Corporation of New York recently awarded me a generous Carnegie Scholars Grant (2005), which has enabled me to go on sabbatical during the current academic year (2006-07) to pursue full time research and writing on this project. I had previously received a grant from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation to start the research for this book. The focus of this book will be on the transformations in the meanings of jihad – and in the related concepts of "martyr" and "martyrdom" – from the earliest period of Islam through the late medieval period and down to our present time. It will be a close study of the significations of the term jihad in the Qur'an, in early hadith works and later fada’il al-jihad ("excellences of jihad") works, in addition to the standard legal works on the topic.

Furthermore, I was recently approached by Edinburgh University Press to write a volume of discrete essays under the title Contemporary Issues in Islam (projected date of publication: 2010). As the title suggests, the book will address some key issues within Islamic thought that are of particular relevance in the contemporary period. These issues include modernity, political Islam, militancy, religion and science, gender, and the role of Western Muslims today There is clearly a need for such a volume in our time written from a thorough-going historical and scholarly perspective. I am hoping it will fill a critical lacuna in today's market and help in the dissemination of responsible information about these important topics.

Steve: Thank you Asma for taking time out of your busy schedule (and sabbatical year) to talk to us. It has been an extremely interesting and enlightening experience, and I wish you all the very best for your continuing work.

(June 27th, 2007)

Further reading

Religion Compass online (http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/religion/)