Tawātur in Islamic Thought
Transmission, Certitude and Orthodoxy
Traces the development of tawātur theories and explores their role in defining Islamic orthodoxy
- Investigates a key epistemological category and its application to the transmission of religious texts and practices
- Traces the genesis, development and application of the term and concept of tawātur in the realms of theology, legal theory, ḥadīth and the transmission of the Qurʾān
- Shows the complex and sometimes unexpected ways in which the major Islamic disciplines interacted with each other in the course of their development
- Explores in what ways the concept of tawātur was and was not successful in delineating a canon of orthodoxy
- Based on diverse primary sources from the main Islamic disciplines over the entirety of the formative period of Islam
Tawātur is the concept that information yields certainty if acquired through a sufficient number of independent channels. Tawātur in Islamic Thought is an attempt to unravel the twisted historical threads of the conception and usage of tawātur across diverse Islamic disciplines, in light of both Western academia and debates within Muslim scholarship.
In the process, numerous salient questions in Islamic thought are tackled, such as epistemic certitude, scholarly consensus (ijmāʿ), and the rationalism–traditionalism relationship. The study culminates in the question of the extent to which tawātur was used by Muslim scholars to define the boundaries of Islam and of orthodoxy.
Tawātur in Islamic Thought shows that the majority voices in Muslim scholarship, across sectarian boundaries, reached a steady-state conception of a two-tiered orthodoxy, corresponding to two tiers of tawātur—an outer tier that includes all who affirm a definitive kernel of Islam and an inner tier that is more exclusive.
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction: What is Tawātur?
1. Historical Overview: Background and Trajectory
2. Theology: Tawātur as a Bulwark against Error
3. Hadith Sciences: How True is a Narration?
4. Legal Theory: The Quest for Certainty
5. Qur’an and Reading Traditions: Clarity and Conundrums
6. Hadith Literature: Trajectory of Tawātur
7. Orthodoxy: Inner Circles and the Big Tent
Conclusion: Knowledge, Then and Now’
Appendix A: Scholars who Labelled Hadiths as Mutawātir
Appendix B: List of Hadiths Labelled as Mutawātir
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Suppose a large group of people, incapable of collusion, corroborate one another’s report of an event they all witnessed first hand. Should I take this corroborated reporting to establish with certainty the content of the reported event? With unusual patience and eloquent presentation, Laher delineates a thousand years of debate on the implications of this inquiry. This book is an accomplishment and will be a rewarding read.
