Reforms under Islam (610-661)

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Between 610 and 661 there were a number of social reforms that occurred during the time of Muhammad's mission and also later under his four immediate successors usually refered to as the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs.

Muhammad preached against what he saw as the social evils of his day, Encyclopedia of world history states. ^[1] Bernard Lewis believes that the advent of Islam was a revolution which only partially succeeded due to tensions between the new religion and very old societies that the Muslims conquered. He thinks that one such area of tension was a consequence of what he sees as the egalitarian nature of Islamic doctrine. Islam from the first denounced aristocratic privilege, rejected hierarchy, and adopted a formula of the career open to the talents. Lewis however notes that the equality in Islam was restricted to free adult male Muslims, but even that "represented a very considerable advance on the practice of both the Greco-Roman and the ancient Iranian world."^[2]

John Esposito sees Muhammad as a reformer who condemned practices of the Arabs such as female infanticide, exploitation of the poor, usury, murder, false contracts, fornication, adultery, and theft. ^[3] He states that Muhammad's "insistence that each person was personally accountable not to tribal customary law but to an overriding divine law shook the very foundations of Arabian society... Muhammad proclaimed a sweeping program of religious and social reform that affected religious belief and practices, business contracts and practices, male-female and family relations."^[4]. Esposito holds that the Qur'an's reforms consist of "regulations or moral guidance that limit or redefine rather than prohibit or replace existing practices." He cites slavery and women's status as two examples.

Bernard Lewis writes about the significance of Muhammad's achievements: ^[5]

He had achieved a great deal. To the pagan peoples of western Arabia he had brought a new religion which, with its monotheism and its ethical doctrines, stood on an incomparably higher level than the paganism it replaced. He had provided that religion with a revelation which was to become in the centuries to follow the guide to thought and count of countless millions of Believers. But he had done more than that; he had established a community and a well organized and armed state, the power and prestige of which made it a dominant factor in Arabia

Contents 1 Social security and family structure 2 Slavery 3 Women's rights 4 Sociological reforms 5 Economic reforms 6 Other reforms 7 References

[edit] Social security and family structure

William Montgomery Watt states that Muhammad was both a social and moral reformer. He asserts that Muhammad created a "new system of social security and a new family structure, both of which were a vast improvement on what went before. By taking what was best in the morality of the nomad and adapting it for settled communities, he established a religious and social framework for the life of many races of men."^[6]

[edit] Slavery

Main article: Islam and Slavery

The Qur'an makes numerous references to slavery (2:178, 16:75, 30:28), regulating but thereby also implicitely accepting this already existing institution. Lewis states that Islam brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were to have far-reaching consequences. "One of these was the presumption of freedom; the other, the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly defined circumstances," Lewis continues. The position of the Arabian slave was "enormously improved": the Arabian slave "was now no longer merely a chattel but was also a human being with a certain religious and hence a social status and with certain quasi-legal rights." ^[7]

Lewis states that in Muslim lands slaves had a certain legal status and had obligations as well as rights to the slave owner, an improvement over slavery in the ancient world. ^{[7] [8]} Due to these reforms the practice of slavery in the Islamic empire represented a "vast improvement on that inherited from antiquity, from Rome, and from Byzantium."^[7]

Although slavery was not abolished, Annemarie Schimmel asserts that as the reforms seriously limited the supply of new slaves, slavery would be theoretically abolished with the expansion of Islam.^[9] Although the Islamic legislations against the abuse of the slaves convincingly limited the extent of slavery in Arabian peninsula and to less degree in the whole Islamic empire, but Patrick Manning notes that with the passage of time and the extension of Islam, Islam by recognizing and codifying the slavery seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse. ^[10]

[edit] Women's rights

Main article: Women in Islam

Majid Khadduri writes that under the Arabian pre-Islamic law of status, women had virtually no rights. Islamic law, however, provided women with a number of rights. ^[11] John Esposito states that the reforms affected marriage, divorce, and inheritance. ^[12] Women were not accorded with such legal status in other cultures, including the West, until centuries later. ^[13] Under the Arabian pre-Islamic law, no limitations were set on men's rights to marry or to obtain a divorce. ^[11] Islamic law, however, restricted polygamy (4:3)^[12] 'Women were given inheritance rights in a patriarchal society that had previously restricted inheritance to male relatives.' ^[12] Annemarie Schimmel states that "Compared to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work"^[14] The Oxford Dictionary of Islam states that the general improvement of the status of Arab women included prohibition of female infanticide, and recognizing women's full personhood. The dowry was paid to the woman herself rather than her family. Women were also granted the right to live in the matrimonial home and receive financial maintainance during marriage and a waiting period following the death and divorce. ^[15] "In the earliest centuries of Islam, the position of women was not bad at all. Only over the course of centuries was she increasingly confined to the house and was forced to veil herself." ^[14] The Quran and Muhammad's example were more favorable to the security and status of women than history and later Muslim practice might suggest. For example, the Qur'an does not require women to wear veils; rather, it was a social habit picked up with the expansion of Islam. In fact, since it was impractical for working women to wear veils, "A veiled woman silently announced that her husband was rich enough to keep her idle." ^{[16] [17]}

The institution of marriage, characterized by unquestioned male superiority in the pre-Islamic law of status, was redefined and changed into one in which the woman was somewhat of an interested partner. 'For example, the dowry, previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property' ^{[11] [12]} Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as a "contract". The essential elements of the marriage contract were now an offer by the man, an acceptance by the woman, and the performance of such conditions as the payment of dowry. The woman's consent was imperative. Furthermore, the offer and acceptance had to be made in the presence of at least two witnesses. ^[11][12]

Watt states that Islam is still, in many ways, a man’s religion. However, he states that Muhammad, in the historical context of his time, can be seen as a figure who testified on behalf of women’s rights and improved things considerably. Watt explains the historical context surrounding women's rights at the time of Muhammad: "It appears that in some parts of Arabia, notably in Mecca, a matrilineal system was in the process of being replaced by a patrilineal one at the time of Muhammad. Growing prosperity caused by a shifting of trade routes was accompanied by a growth in individualism. Men were amassing considerable personal wealth and wanted to be sure that this would be inherited by their own actual sons, and not simply by an extended family of their sisters’ sons. This led to a deterioration in the rights of women. At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible - they had no right to own property, were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died everything went to his sons." Muhammad, however, by "instituting rights of property ownership, inheritance, education and divorce, gave women certain basic safeguards." ^[18]

Haddad and Esposito state that 'although Islam is often criticized for the low status it has ascribed to women, many scholars believe that it was primarily the interpretation of jurists, local traditions, and social trends which brought about a decline in the status of Muslim women. In this view Muhammad granted women rights and privileges in the sphere of family life, marriage, education, and economic endeavors, rights that help improve women's status in society.' However, 'the Arab Bedouins were dedicated to custom and tradition and resisted changes brought by the new religion.' Haddad and Esposito state that in this view 'the inequality of Muslim women happened because of the preexisting habits of the people among whom Islam took root. The economics of these early Muslim societies were not favorable to comfortable life for women. More important, during Islam's second and third centuries the interpretation of the Qur'an was in the hands of deeply conservative scholars, whose decisions are not easy to challenge today. The Qur'an is more favorable to women than is generally realized. In principle, except for a verse or two, the Qur'an grants women equality. For example, Eve was not the delayed product of Adam’s rib (as in the tradition for Christians and Jews); the two were born from a single soul. It was Adam, not Eve, who let the devil convince them to eat the forbidden fruit. Muslim women are instructed to be modest in their dress, but only in general terms. Men are also told to be modest. Many Muslims believe the veiling and seclusion are later male inventions, social habits picked up with the conquest of the Byzantine and Persian Empires.' ^[19]

Gerhard Endress states: "The social system ... build up a new system of marriage, family and inheritance; this system treated women as an individual too and guaranteed social security to her as well as to her children. Legally controlled polygamy was an important advance on the various loosely defined arrangements which had previously been both possible and current; it was only by this provision (backed up by severe punishment for adultery), that the family, the core of any sedentary society could be placed on a firm footing." ^[20]

Part of a series of articles on Islam     History of Islam

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See also

Vocabulary of Islam This box: view • talk • edit

[edit] Sociological reforms

Main article: Islamic sociology

Dale Eickelman writes that: ^[21]

Writing in 1960s, sociologist Robert Bellah (Beyond belief) argued that Islam in its seventh-century origins was, for its time and place, "remarkably modern...in the high degree of commitment, involvement, and participation expected from the rank-and-file members of the community." Its leadership positions were open, and divine revelation emphasized equality among believers. Bellah argues that the restraints that kept the early Muslim community from "wholly exemplifying" these modern principles underscore the modernity of the basic message of the Qur'an, which exhorted its initial audience in seventh-century Arabia to break through the "stagnant localisms" of tribe and kinship. In making such statements, Bellah suggests that the early Islamic community placed a particular value on individuals, as opposed to collective or group responsibility (q.v.), so that efforts by contemporary Muslims to depict the early Islamic community as an egalitarian and participant one are not unwarranted.

Frederick M. Denny concludes his article on Community and Society in the Qur'an (cf. Encyclopedia of the Qur'an) by the following remark about the idea of Muslim community (umma), developed by the Qur'an: ^[22]

Surely the most enduring and influential qur'anic idea of community is that of umma and so flexible is it in specific social, religious, and political terms that it can be embraced across a wide range of concerns by Muslims without their losing a general sense of common cause and consensus concerning the big question of belief and the proper conduct of life both individually and communally. Indeed, the umma idea has enabled Muslims to endure serious setbacks as in the times of western colonialism when political power was at a lower point in many Muslim regions. What is more, the umma ideal does not require a unified political order among Muslims in order to be realized and activated... Whenever one looks in the spreading Muslim populations of today..., the Qur'anic formulations and models of social and communal life of Muslims predominate and provide an ever fresh and innovative approach to defining what is meant to be Muslim and how to live in a pluralistic world alongside other communities and societies, whether religious or secular in nature.

[edit] Economic reforms

Main article: Islamic economical jurisprudence

Michael Bonner writes on poverty and economics in the Qur'an that the Qur'an provided a blueprint for a new order in society, in which the poor would be treated more fairly than before. This "economy of poverty" prevailed in Islamic theory and practice until 13th and 14th century. At its heart was a notion of property circulated and purified, in part, through charity, which illustrates a distinctively Islamic way of conceptualizing charity, generosity, and poverty markedly different from "the Christian notion of perennial reciprocity between rich and poor and the ideal of charity as an expression of community love." The Qur'an prohibits bad kind of circulation (often understood interest or usury) and asks for good circulation (zakat [legal alms giving]). Some of the recipients of charity appear only once in the Qur'an, and others—such as orphans, parents, and beggars—reappear constantly. Most common is the triad of kinsfolk, poor, and travelers. Unlike pre-Islamic Arabian society, the Qur'anic idea of economic circulation as a return of goods and obligations was for everyone, whether donors and recipients know each other or not, in which goods move, and society does what it is supposed to do. The Qur'an's distinctive set of economic and social arrangements, in which poverty and the poor have important roles, show signs of newness. The Qur'an told that the guidance comes to a community that regulates its flow of money and goods in the right direction (from top down) and practices generosity as reciprocation for God's bounty. In a broad sense, the narrative underlying the Qur'an is that of a tribal society becoming urbanized. Many scholars have characterized both the Qur'an and Islam as highly favorable to commerce and to the highly mobile type of society that emerged in the medieval Near East. Muslim tradition (both hadith and historiography) maintains that Muhammad did not permit the construction of any buildings in the market of Medina other than mere tents; nor did he permit any tax or rent to be taken there. This expression of a "free market"—involving the circulation of goods within a single space without payment of fees, taxes, or rent, without the construction of permanent buildings, and without any profiting on the part of the caliphal authority (indeed, of the Caliph himself )—was rooted in the term sadaqa, "voluntary alms." This coherent and highly appealing view of the economic universe had much to do with Islam's early and lasting success. Since the poor were at the heart of this economic universe, the teachings of the Qur'an on poverty had a considerable, even a transforming effect in Arabia, the Near East, and beyond.^[23]

[edit] Other reforms

Islam reduced the devastating effect of blood feuds, which was common among Arabs, by encouraging compensation in money rather than blood. In case the aggrieved party insisted on blood, unlike the pre-Islamic Arab tradition in which any male relative could be slained, only the culprit himself could be slain. ^{[24] [20]}

The Cambridge History of Islam states that the nomadic structure of pre-Islamic Arabia had the serious moral problem of the care of the poor and the unfortunate. "Not merely did the Qur'an urge men to show care and concern for the needy, but in its teaching about the Last day it asserted the existence of a sanction applicable to men as individuals in matters where their selfishness was no longer restrained by nomadic ideas of dishonour." ^[25]

Islam, in an effort to protect and help vargants, orphans and destitute made regular almsgiving — zakat — obligatory for Muslims. This regular alms-giving developed into a form of income tax to be used exclusively for welfare. ^[26]

Hossein Nasr states the Islam teaches support for the poor and the oppressed.^[27]

[edit] References

also:

• Forward, Martin (1998). Muhammad: A Short Biography. Oxford: Oneworld. ISBN 1851681310.
• Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. US: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691054193.
• P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912.
• Watt, M Montgomery (1974). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198810784.
• Jonathan M. Bloom, Sheila S. Blair (1974). Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300094221.
• Manning, Patrick (1990). Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521348676.
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1992). Islam: An Introduction. US: SUNY Press. ISBN 0791413276.