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    Substantive Versus Normative: Rereading Early Islamic Ideas Rahmatullah (18200010105)

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    Rahmatullah al-Barawi
    1) The document discusses early theories about the emergence of Islam, including traditional views that portrayed Islam as distinct from Judaism and Christianity from the beginning, versus revisionist views. 2) Revisionist scholar Fred Donner argues that early Islam began as an "ecumenical community" that was open to other monotheistic faiths, based on references in the Quran and early documents like the Medina Charter. 3) The author agrees with Donner's view that early Islam should be understood as an open community of diverse believers, though over time it developed a distinct religious identity. Islam had both a substantive meaning of faith, belief, and good deeds, as well as a normative meaning as

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    Substantive Versus Normative: Rereading Early Islamic Ideas Rahmatullah (18200010105)

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    Rahmatullah al-Barawi
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    1) The document discusses early theories about the emergence of Islam, including traditional views that portrayed Islam as distinct from Judaism and Christianity from the beginning, versus revisionist views. 2) Revisionist scholar Fred Donner argues that early Islam began as an "ecumenical community" that was open to other monotheistic faiths, based on references in the Quran and early documents like the Medina Charter. 3) The author agrees with Donner's view that early Islam should be understood as an open community of diverse believers, though over time it developed a distinct religious identity. Islam had both a substantive meaning of faith, belief, and good deeds, as well as a normative meaning as

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    1) The document discusses early theories about the emergence of Islam, including traditional views that portrayed Islam as distinct from Judaism and Christianity from the beginning, versus revisionist views. 2) Revisionist scholar Fred Donner argues that early Islam began as an "ecumenical community" that was open to other monotheistic faiths, based on references in the Quran and early documents like the Medina Charter. 3) The author agrees with Donner's view that early Islam should be understood as an open community of diverse believers, though over time it developed a distinct religious identity. Islam had both a substantive meaning of faith, belief, and good deeds, as well as a normative meaning as

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    30 views2 pages

    Substantive Versus Normative: Rereading Early Islamic Ideas Rahmatullah (18200010105)

    Uploaded by

    Rahmatullah al-Barawi
    1) The document discusses early theories about the emergence of Islam, including traditional views that portrayed Islam as distinct from Judaism and Christianity from the beginning, versus revisionist views. 2) Revisionist scholar Fred Donner argues that early Islam began as an "ecumenical community" that was open to other monotheistic faiths, based on references in the Quran and early documents like the Medina Charter. 3) The author agrees with Donner's view that early Islam should be understood as an open community of diverse believers, though over time it developed a distinct religious identity. Islam had both a substantive meaning of faith, belief, and good deeds, as well as a normative meaning as

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    Substantive versus Normative: Rereading Early Islamic Ideas1

    Rahmatullah (18200010105)

    Discussions about history are always interesting including the early history of the
    emergence of Islam. There are a variety of theories that explain this topic from traditional to
    revisionists sources. The traditional explanation start from narratives of stories told in classic
    sources written by scholars (ulama). Based on this narration, there are at least three main
    features of the emergence of Islam. First, the location of the Arabs as a place for the emergence
    of Islam. The emergence of Islam is described in Mecca with the conditions of paganism and
    its barbaric life (jahiliyah).

    Second, the view of Islam as a monotheistic religion separate from other monotheistic
    religions. In addition to being portrayed in an atmosphere of ignorance (jahiliyah), Islam is
    also portrayed as being born in an area which was quite isolated from the influence of previous
    Abrahamic teachings. This is to emphasize that Islam is not contaminated or influenced by
    other teachings. This picture then perfects the third issue related to the finality and perfection
    of Islam. Traditional sources explain that Islam has been perfect since the life of the Prophet
    Muhammad.2

    In contrast to traditional ideas, Fred Donner underlined that the early history of Islam
    was born as an open community of faith (ecumenical community). He commented on the
    traditional view as follows:

    So much for the traditional view of how Islam began. One thing to note about
    this portrayal, besides the incredible dynamism and success of the movement, is
    that the traditional view portrays Islam as being, from the very beginning, a
    distinct new religious confession. In particular, it is depicted as a religion that
    was distinct from the earlier monotheisms, Judaism and Christianity, both of
    which were widespread in the Near East (and indeed, even in Arabia)—this
    despite the fact that the Qur’ān contains a great deal of material that is obviously
    related to the Jewish and Christian traditions, such as fragments of stories about
    various Hebrew prophets, about Jesus, etc.

    1
    Article review from Fred M. Donner, “How Ecumenical was Early Islam” in Near Eastern Languages
    and Civilization, (Washington: University of Washington, 2013).
    2
    Mun`im Sirry, Kemunculan Islam dalam Kesarjanaan Revisionis, (Yogyakarta: Suka Press, 2017), hlm.
    68-75.
    Therefore, there are at least two main arguments proposed by Donner. First, he uses the
    Quran (in this case Donner accepts the Quran as an initial historical document that reaches us
    and can be used). There are about 75 times the Quran mentions the word muslim, while the
    word mu`min is almost 1.000 times. This confirms that the initial community referred to by the
    Quran emphasized the community of faith (mu`min) rather than muslim. In addition, the
    characteristics of the faithful are also described in al-Baqarah verse 62 and al-Maidah verse 69,
    namely three main points, faith in God, the End Times, and good deeds.

    Second, Donner strengthen his argument on the Medina Charter document in which the
    openness of the teachings of Muhammad brought with the other religious entities. In fact, from
    this document it can be seen that the Jews living in Medina at that time also became part of the
    umma (community) which had the same rights as the followers of Muhammad. In addition, he
    also collected early historical data which indeed mentioned more about the community of
    believers (mu`min).

    Based on this argument, I agree with the ideas from Fred Donner about the community
    of believers who are open and dialoguing with other believer communities. This is an early
    Islamic idea that can be understood as the kernel of history. Then in the development of history,
    the community of faiths brought by Muhammad became increasingly crystallized and formed
    a religious identity distinctive to other religions, especially with the same religion of
    monotheism, Jews and Christians.

    Therefore, I was underline the development of the meaning of Islam in two points. First,
    Islam as substantive meaning is submission, obedience carried out by the community of faith
    with the three main principles, faith in God, believe in hereafter, and do good deeds. While the
    second point is the normative idea of Islam as a religious institution that is different from other
    religions, including Judaism and Christianity. This second understanding is currently a
    common understanding in our society. Personally, I don’t question this last point, it is just that
    understanding about Islam as a religion is also equipped with the substance of the teachings of
    Islam itself which teaches goodness and peace, as exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad and
    the early generation who were open in the diverse society.

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