Reply to Islamic Scholar Hamza Yusuf: Is Reform Possible?

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[quote=Anonymous]Rather than write a summary I decided to just provide bullet points of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson's lecture. There's a question and answer session at the end which I have not covered. I have also not covered the other lecturers speech, Tariq Ramadan. Maybe another time.

- Shaykh Yusuf asks "Can we make the Quran a 'living' Quran to reflect today's time?"
- This question is asked in response to the recent events in the news. Islam now inspires the same terror as communism once did to the Capitalist West. When a group of people are up against the wall, they usually respond in one of two ways:
a) The conquered group becomes like the conqueror (this is called Herodism)
b) Or it gives rise to zealotism (full rigidity)
- Both, however, are not successful and are dead ends
- Prophet Muhammad himself spoke of a concept called "Islahq" (spelling?). He said "Blessed are the people who are Islahq." When asked who the Islahq people are, he said, "People who rectify after others have corrupted it.
- So implication here is that the Sharia can be corrupted
and the more important implication is that there is actually a NEED for people to rectify it if it has become corrupted.
- Shaykh Yusuf does not lie the word reform, he prefers "renovation" be used, because it implies the foundation of our religion is intact, it just needs repair.
- He said Muslims of the 19th century would not recognize Muslims of today at all because our Muslim society has changed so much. 
- For example, in the past, it was not prohibited for women to lead prayer. Women most definitely can lead prayer so long as it's from the back because in the front it potentially distracts the men who sit there.
- In the past, scholar  knew that when they spoke to the Quran or hadith, they were not dictating God's law. They knew all along they were interpreting God's law. 
- In the past, there were clear prohibitions of anyone calling a fatwa a rule of God. They were not. They were simply interpreting God's law.
- Muslims always recognized diversity and difference of opinion so there's no reason why reform/renovation should not be welcome or accepted. 
- However in considering  reform or renovation, there are some things which may never be changed and they are called "thawabbit" in Arabic. These are concepts such as, but not limited to, who   God is, basic diet restrictions, prophesy,  and afterlife.
- However, we can most certainly change our UNDERSTANDINGS of the Quran.
- There are very strict boundaries to renovate islam! It should not be attempted without respecting these boundaries
a) The Quran can only be interpreted in the language it was revealed, which was 7th century  Arabic.
b) The Quran should never be interpreted by anyone else who isn't trained in 7th century Arabic.
- The greatest human achievement has been that the preservation of the Quran. There are people who have studied 7th century Arabic very well and they need to be involved in the reform/renovation.
-Given the ambiguous nature of the the language of Arabic, it should be understood that verses can be reinterpreted in light of new knowledge. 
- Many people are scared of reforming the interpretation of the Quran:
q) To them, a reformed islam is not real Islam
b) They worry it is a BI'DAH (innovation)
- Fear holds true for Muslims but not in America and Europe because western Muslims are broad minded and accepting.
- Shaykh Yusuf says that the fundamental thrust of Islam  was that it was always a reformist movement to begin with. Prophet Muhammad reformed the Abrahamic movement. 
- A question that may arise when reforming the Quran is, should government be involved? No.
a) Muslims and Muslim jurists were libertarians, had a mistrust of government involvement.
b) Associating with government tarnishes reputation because often times governments have different, conflicting motives.
- Prophet Muhammad had a saying: Worst scholars are at the door of the government and the best scholars are the ones who are at the door  of scholars.
- Muslims do not have the intellectual tools to navigate religion in unchartered waters and therefore, we have the serious problem of violence in civil society.
- Islam is a peaceful religion. The Prophet disdained war. He said, "Never hope to meet your enemy, but if you have to, then meet them with bravery in the battlefields."
- We also have the new problem of "google shaykhs." People who are unqualified are issuing fatwas from caves. For example, Osama bin Laden issued fatwas. But he is not qualified to do so. He is no  more than an accountant.
- He closes his speech with an example of how imperative it is for the right people to be interpreting the Quran and hadith:

A fatwa was issued by the city of Mardeen in Turkey long ago. The ruler of that city was not applying the Shaira because he was too much under the influence of the mongols at the time, who were not Muslim yet. The fatwa stated,"Believers should be treated in accordance as a believer and disbelievers should be fought if they leave the Sharia." Shaykh Abdullah bin Baya felt this fatwa was incorrect and not in accordance with Islam so he returned to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to check the original text of the fatwa. This was a 100 year old fatwa. The city of Mardeen had misread the fatwa. In the original text, the fatwa read as follows: "Believers should be treated in accordance as a believer, and disbelievers should be treated as if they left the Shaira." This makes sense because there are a host of different rules that apply for disbelievers versus believers. Nowhere did it mention the word "fighting." Apparently there was a misprint and ever since then that fatwa has been misread and published everywhere with the misprint. So it is very, very important for the right people, those who are educated in 7th century Arabic to be entrusted with the responsibility of rectifying the corruption in Quranic  translation.
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