Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-04T05:38:50.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Decline in the Position of the Clergy in the Eyesof Muslims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2021

Hussein Ahmad Amin
Affiliation:
Diplomatic Institute in Cairo
Yasmin Amin
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Nesrin Amin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

Previously, greater knowledge would increase a scholar's contempt for the world and his inclination towards renouncing it, but nowadays, it only increases his attachment to the world. Previously, a man would spend his wealth on acquiring knowledge, but nowadays, this knowledge helps men acquire wealth. Previously, knowledge would help a scholar grow inwardly and outwardly, yet nowadays the inward and outward corruption shows on him.

Dhū-l-Nūn al-Misri

A scholar enters between God and his creations; let him be careful how he enters!

Ibn al-Munkadir

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (in Tārīkh Baghdad) and Tāj al-Dīn Al-Subkī (in Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-kubra) list countless examples of the reverence enjoyed by religious scholars in the Middle Ages. The latter writes that when a religious scholar visited Khorasan once, the entire population, including women and children, came out to touch his robes and collect the dust off his shoes to use it as medicine to heal themselves. Merchants brought out their goods of sweets, fruit, garments and furs, scattering them above people's heads. The Sufiwomen of that town threw their rosaries at him, hoping these would touch him and that they would therefore receive his barakāt (blessings).

Ibn al-Jawzī describes the crowd attending Aḥad Ibn Ḥanbal's funeral, saying:

A thousand thousand [i.e., a million] people gathered, the likes of which had never been seen before, neither in Jahiliyya nor in Islam. They estimated that about sixty thousand women gathered next to the wall. Some people spent the night by the tomb. There was no household untouched by grief, except the houses of evil. The day he died, twenty thousand Jews, Christians and Magi converted to Islam.

Centuries later, Ahmad Amin wrote in his autobiography Ḥayātī (My Life) that when he sought marriage:

… the turban became a stumbling block in the way. When I approached some of the homes of families with girls of marriageable age, they accepted my youth, my degree, and my salary, but they did not accept my turban. A turban denoted religiosity, which in their view implied radicalism and lack of civility, and was synonymous with backwardness, avarice and other such repulsive meanings. I was told they have no place for a turban.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×