Roots Of Polytheistic Tendencies In Islamism

Islam is a monotheistic faith. This means that Allah is the chief authority, without equals. Allah does not share His sovereignty with anyone. We are advised to uphold the sovereignty of Allah at all times. Yet for a few, tradition turned into a fetish and turned into "partner" of revelation. With the elevation of tradition to revelation, they transformed Islam into "traditional" Islam. For the politically alert, Islam mutated into a political effort known as Islamism. Both of these developments are problematic, for analogous reasons. For to elevate tradition to revelation is to ascribe a "partner" to revelation. To ascribe a partner to revelation is not far from ascribing a "partner" to the Author of revelation. Evidence of a propensity to peddle this "partnership" is perceptible on the walls of not a few places of prayer, where Allah is referred to in tandem with the prophet, as if they were "equals." But Allah has no equals. Hence, His words have no "equals either." Tradition is not "equal" to revelation because Allah has neither "equals" nor "partners." No hadith could ever be as authoritative as a verse of revelation. To say that a mutawatir tradition stands on an "equal" footing as revelation is problematic, because it suggests that a transmitter of a mutawatir tradition has the same authoritative status as the Author of revelation. The advocates of political Islam assert that the word of Allah - revelation - may be "abrogated" by the prophet, or by traditions attributed to the prophet. A few jurists went so far as to assert that a tradition with a solitary chain of narration may "abrogate" revelation. In fact, they asserted that they, too, may abrogate revelation. Assertions of this kind betray hubris. These assertions are expressions of paganism, as revelation teaches that the authority of Allah may not be "overruled" by anything. For there is no authority greater than or even equal to Allah. Thus, the assertion that tradition or a jurist may "abrogate" revelation is tantamount to asserting that tradition or jurists could "abrogate" the words of Allah. "The majority of scholars during the period in question [660 onwards] held that the Sunnah could abrogate the Qur'an even if it took the form of a solitary report (khabar ahad)."[1] To say that a tradition may abrogate revelation is tantamount to asserting that the authority of the transmitter surpasses that of Allah, the Author of revelation. It is an example of a flawed assertion, a tainted by polytheism. [1] Taha Jabir Alwani, Reviving the Balance the Authority of The Qur'an and The Status of The Sunnah, IIIT, 2017, p. 101, Academia, accessed: 24 Mar 2021: https: //www.academia.edu/43889777/Reviving_the_Balance_The_Authority_of_the_Qur_an_and_the_Status_of_the_Sunnah_.