2021/02/05 by Nicholas Boylston · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Islamic Studies and History #Education and Islamic Studies #Historical and Linguistic Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/jis/etab015
openalex publication_date 2021/02/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Against the backdrop of recent work on how ‘Islam’ should be understood as a scholarly category, this article focuses in on one particularly striking insider definition of Islam: ‘Islam is whatever takes a man to God, and infidelity (kufr) is whatever prevents a man from the Way of God’. Articulated by the sixth/twelfth century Sufi ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī, who was executed on charges of heresy in 526/1131, this definition works as a key component in its author’s critical and constructive projects. Whilst forming part of a vociferous critique of interpretations of Islam as presented by the scholars of jurisprudence and theology, the definition also plays a central role in ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s reconceptualization of Islam as the dynamic and ever-changing Way to God, rather than a set of fixed doctrines and practices. In this article, I interpret this definition in light of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s complex, multifaceted and highly original theory of religious difference, which I suggest provides a theoretical framework in which it becomes evident that ʿAyn al-Quḍāt meant his definition to be taken literally.