WAHHABISM AND JADIDISM N ISLAMIC CONSCIOUSNESS N DAGHESTAN: PARALLELS AND CONTRADICTIONS
Abstract
Effective opposition of religious extremism requires mastering the entire range of conceptual systems appropriate for the situation at hand. And not many of those who write about Islam and its problems miss the opportunity to mention fundamentalism, Salafism, Wahhabism, Jadidism, and other similar concepts. On the one hand, this attention to academics should be hailed since, otherwise, it would be difficult to conceptualize our knowledge; while on the
other, the multitude of different approaches breeds a multitude of different ideas, whereas science should strive for the opposite. A lack of harmony when it comes to concepts and terms undermines our concerted efforts aimed at fighting and defeating religious extremism. There is no agreement—in the academic and religious communities alike—on the interpretations of Jadidism and Wahhabism. This fully applies to the Republic of Daghestan.
There is the opinion that the concept of “fundamentalism” cannot be applied to Wahhabism and its description, Daghestan being no exception in this case.1 Both in Russia and the West the term “fundamentalism” is obviously abused.2 This is very true: the term fails to describe the very essence of Wahhabism: it is too limited to describe Wahhabi specifics. It is indispensable, however, and serves a useful purpose when it comes to identifying its special and particular features. From this point of view, the concept of fundamentalism is indispensable for any discussion of the nature of Wahhabism. It should not be abused, however. V. Naumkin has pointed out that certain authors tend to apply the term to an extremely wide spectrum of religious phenomena: “renovation,”3 “revisionism,”4 “mod ernism,”5 “revivalism,” and “traditionalism.” Without going into details, it would be wise to base an analysis of fundamentalist trends in Islamic confessions on the concept of Salafism. It has already been accepted by the academic community as an anchor term used to describe the basic, and shared, content of all Islamic fundamentalist trends. Islam, one of the best encyclopedic dictionaries, derives the term “Salafi” from “Salaf,” meaning “ancestors” or “precursors.” Salafi is a blanket term applied to all Muslim religious figures who during their lifetime called on the faithful to imitate the lifestyle and religious convictions of the early Muslim community and the “righteous ancestors” (al-salaf al-salihun). They described all later developments as “bid’ah” (heresy).6 Salafism, and fundamentalism of all other hues for that matter, means excessive loyalty to the original confessional ideas that force its followers to reject all later changes and reforms touching upon fundamentals and values.
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References
See: E F Kisriev, Islam i vlast v Daghestane, Moscow, 2004, p. 107.
See: V.V Naumkin, “Islamskiy radikalizm v zerkale novykh kontseptsiy i podkhodov,” Vostok, No. 1, 2006, p. 5.
See: Ibidem.
G. Delanoue, “Nekotorye aspekty vozroshdenia islama v Rossii. Musul’manskiy reformism v araboiazychnykh stranakh (1800-1940),” in: Islam v tatarskom mire: istoria i sovremennost, Kazan, 1997, p. 159.
S. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Touchstone Books, New York, 1988,p. 112.
See: “As-Salafiya,” in: Islam. Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar, Moscow, 1991, p. 204.
See: R.A. Nabiev, Islam i gosudarstvo, Kazan, 2002, p. 121.
Ijtihad—zeal and excessive ardour when it comes to identifying and resolving still unresolved problems so that the new solutions were rooted in Islam and supported it (see: “al-Ijtihad,” in: Islam. Etsiklopedicheskiy slovar, p. 91).
From the scholarly point of view, the term “traditional Islam” allows numerous interpretations. Here it means Is-lam that follows the taqlid (the authority of madhab).
See: Sh. Mukhidinov, editor of Assalam, a newspaper published by the Spiritual Administration of the Mus-lims of Daghestan (SAMD), has written that Euro-Islam rests on critical thinking, while ijtihad is a random interpre-tation (refusal to recognize the four imams and random interpretation of the Koran) that has already brought some Muslims, the Wahhabites, to terrorism, extremism, and self-destruction.” See “Komu nuzhna modernizatsia islama,”Daghestantsy, No. 2, 2004.
The letter 34 pages long was written in Arabic around the mid-20th century, according to researchers of the Center of Oriental Studies at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the DSC RAS Sh. Shikhaliev and A. Navru-zov. The original belongs to Abduragim Abdurakhmanov of the village of Nizhny Jengutai, Daghestan. It has not been published; Sh. Shikhaliev translated it into Russian at my request.
Taqlid—devotion to one of the madhabs as opposition to ijtihad.
Tawassul—recognition of the intercessory role of the Prophet and the righteous men in Sufism.
See: A.A. Mantaev, “Sufism i wahhabizm v Daghestane v kontse 19-nachale 20 veka,” Islamskaia tsivilizatsia,No. 1, 2005, pp. 143-145.
Abd al-Hafiz al-Uhli, “Dostoverny otvet blagochestivomu bratu,” p. 3.
Ibid., p. 4.
A.A. Mantaev, op. cit., p. 44.
Gilbert Delanoue of France believes that Rashid Rid represented a conservative trend in Muhammad Abdo’s teach-
ing: (a) he defended Wahhabism; (b) he considered Islam to be a religion and law; (c) he believed that Islam was the most perfect religion (see: G. Delanoue, op. cit., pp. 164-165).
See: Said Afandi Chirkeyskiy, Sokrovishcha blagodatnykh znaniy, Moscow, 2003, p. 99; R. Nuridinov, “Wah-habism—virus v islame,” Assalam, No. 20, 1998.
Scripturalism accepts the Koran and Sunnah as the only sources of knowledge.
See: V.V. Naumkin, op. cit., p. 6.
See: R. As-Said, “Novy vzgliad,” Tarikh, No. 6, 1998.
“Prichiny mezhduusobits. Podpisano ‘Jamaat Daghestana’,” Khalifat, No. 2, 1998.
Tatar enlightener Gabdennasyr Kursavi was one of the first to develop this principle in Russian Islam. G. Gubay-
dulin wrote that Kursavi promoted the principles of reasoning (G. Gubaydulin, “K voprosu ob ideologii I. Gasprinskogo,”in: Izvestia vostochnogo fakul’teta Azerbaijanskogo gosuniversiteta, Baku, 1929, p. 189).
E.F. Kisriev, op. cit., pp. 108-109.
S. Huntington, op. cit., p. 112.
A.M. Vassiliev, Puritane Islama? Wahhabizm i pervoe gosudarstvo saudidov v Aravii, Moscow, 1967, pp. 107-109.
See: “Modernizatsia,” in: A.N. Bulyko, Sovremenny slovar inostrannykh slov, Moscow, 2005; “Modernizirovat,”in: S.N. Ozhegov, Slovar russkogo iazyka, Moscow, 1983.
See: N.V. Zhdanov, A.A. Ignatenko, Islam na poroge XXI veka, Moscow, 1989, p. 17.
See: M.A. Abdullaev, Iu.V. Medjidov, Ali Kayaev, Makhachkala, 1968, p. 65.
A. Kayaev, Biografii daghestanskikh uchenykh-arabistov, p. 4. The Manuscript Collection of the Institute of His-tory, Archaeology and Ethnography, DSC RAS. Record Group 25, Inventory 1, File 1.
Ibidem.
Ibidem.
See: A. Akaev, Along the Road of the Prophet, Vol. 1, Makhachkala, 1992, pp. 6-7 (in the Kumyk language).
“‘Avtobiografia’ Abusuf’iana Akaeva,” Literaturnoe i nauchnoe nasledie Abusuf’iana Akaeva, Transl.
rom the Azerbaijanian by G.M.-R. Orazaev; translations from the Arabic by A.R. Shikhsaidov, Makhachkala,1992, pp. 129-130.
See: Sh. Shikhaliev, “Saypula-qadi. Islam na territorii byvshey rossiyskoy imperii,” Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar,Issue 4, Moscow, 2004.
See: S.Kh. Akbiev, Sviaz vremen i druzhba literatur (nekotorye voprosy razvitia daghestansko-tatarskikh literatur-nykh sviazey),Makhachkala, 1985, p. 86.
See: A. Gadjiev, “Jadidism v Daghestane,” in: Fundamental’nye i prikladnye voprosy estestvennykh nauk, Vol. II,Makhachkala, 1994, pp. 131-133.
See: A.V. Malashenko, R.A. Nabiev, A.Iu. Khabutdinov, “Jadidism,” in: Islam na evropeyskom vostoke. Entsik-lopedicheskiy slovar, Kazakn, 2004.
In 1849, for example, a secular Muslim school was opened in Derbent; because it did not have enough students,it was moved to the town of Temirkhanshur (see: G.I. Guseynov, Hasan Alkadari, Makhachkala, 2006, p. 49).
See: G. Bautdinov, “Rossiiskie predtechi Evroislama,” Nezavisimaia gazeta, 4 February, 2004.
He said this on 5 October, 2006 in a private talk with the author.
A. Akaev, “Who are Socialists?” in: Along the Road of the Prophet, Vol. 1, p. 22. Later, the author was deeply disappointed in the Bolsheviks whom he called in this article “a huge crowd of socialists.” “At that time, we did not know the socialists’ program. Had I known the program of the socialists and the Soviet government I would have never defend-ed them” (see: G.M.-R. Orazaev, Foreword to the second volume of Akaev’s work, Makhachkala, 1997, p. 8).
Jaridat Daghestan, No. 11, 1917.
Channa Tsuku newspaper, No. 8, 1917. Quoted from: M.A. Abdullaev, Iu.V. Medjidov, op. cit., pp. 124-125.
Abd al-Hafiz al-Uhli, op. cit., p. 8.
Bayan al-Hakaik, No. 1, 1925.
A. Akaev, “The State of Hidjaz and the Misfortunes of Wahhabism,” Bayan al-Hakaik, No. 1, 1925.
See: A.N. Iuzeev, “Zhiznedeiatel’nost Mardjani,” Ocherki Mardjani o vostochnykh narodakh, Kazan, 2003, p. 29.
See: A. Akaev, The Book of Morals, Temirkhanshura, 1914 (in Kumyk).
See: A.M. Vassiliev, op. cit.
See: R. Safin, “Natsional’noe dvizhenie i religia,” Tatarstan, No. 4, 1997, pp. 5-11.
See: I.A. Shamov, “Religia ili svetskoe prosveshchenie,” Daghestanskaia pravda, 8 June, 2001. When writing about one-sided confessional education in the Islamic universities of Daghestan, the author, who is known in the republic as a writer and prominent doctor, says that they lack “everything that makes a member of society an educated person and society it-self developed.”
For more detail, see: Z.M. Abdulagatov, “Daghestan and Tatarstan: The State/Religion Relationship in the Islam-ic Context of Russia,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 1 (31), 2005.
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