The Essence of Prophethood

Ibn Khaldun was interested in understanding the nature of prophethood, since it was essential to understand Muslim society as the Prophet (SWAS) played a major role in its formation. Furthermore, he wanted to examine the essential meaning of how prophets are different from other humans. In order to do so, he investigated the nature and source of prophetic knowledge as well as the nature and source of the powers which allow them to perform miracles, influence the masses to believe and follow them. 

He believed that prophethood is a human phenomenon. In fact, prophets are extremely rare humans of the highest form who live upright lives prior to and during their mission. They are extremely rare individuals who possess special, rarely attainable powers from birth. Yet, their knowledge, purpose, actions, and powers are human despite the fact that ordinary humans cannot learn to become a prophet.

According to Ibn Khaldun, there are four avenues of knowledge in humans. The first is the ordinary way we know existing in our physical bodies in the world of sense. The second type of knowledge is that from dreams. This avenue is distorted and unreliable but represents one way we learn from the world hidden from our senses. That knowledge becomes clear after our death when we are in our graves as our sense of apprehension will still be alive. We will learn in that intermediate world what we cannot learn easily here.

The type of knowledge that distinguishes prophets is sacred knowledge which they gain through direct spiritual intuition. The veils of the unseen world are lifted from them and they can physically experience the angelic world. Its knowledge is given to them at once rather than piecemeal like normal scientific, practical or philosophical knowledge is gained by ordinary people. 

The purpose of prophethood is to guide and reform people. So they use this sacred knowledge to convince and influence the masses to believe and act the way they want. To do this they need to have practical wisdom which is taught to prophets by the sacred knowledge they have access to. Not only that, they use such wisdom to make laws and lead their nation to fulfill their mission.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evolution of a State

Image
According to Ibn Khaldun, every state undergoes 5 stages of development in its life cycle. Primitive culture organized itself finding synergy and solidarity in Al-Assabiya and religion, seeking escape from poverty, marginal living, lack of leisure, etc. by seeking an urban living. What can be achieved in urban life cannot be achieved in a primitive lifestyle. Thus, the attraction of wealth, recreation, stability, and intellectual development pulls the nomadic tribesmen to capture city after city, to form a state. Ibn Khaldun calls the refined culture of the cities, "civilization". Initially, the state is established based on zeal and fervor when its sense of social cohesion is strong. It is united by a leader to who the population has given their allegiance. As the state gets established, this sense of solidarity weakens as the heroes who established the state become dispersed throughout the state. The extent of the boundaries of the state will depend on the extent of this s...
Read more

Primitive Culture

Image
A primitive society ( umran badawi ) is the simplest of societies. It is characterized by groups of people of the same extended family, living off the land in nomadic or simple agricultural existence. They typically work hard using the simplest of resources and tools to just survive. Their economy is simple and restricted, often based on barter. Their food is plain. Their characters are strong, upright, and well-rounded. Their skills are broad, deep, and practical, allowing them to survive in the toughest of environments.  There is less possibility for them to be engaged in vice as vice is often detrimental to their subsistent existence. Even if they wish to engage in vices, they usually do not get the opportunities to do so. In contrast, they are more likely to be guided to good moral living if someone preaches that to them as it directly benefits their way of life.  Social cohesion in primitive societies is primarily through natural kinship and affinity to one's relations. T...
Read more

The Birth of New Social Sciences

Image
According to Ibn Khaldun, history has two forms, external and internal. For the most part, history before him was narrated as an external history in the form of a chronology of reports. There were important exceptions to this, most notably the accounts in the Quran, which always have parables and analysis for our guidance narrated with the history. Such internal history, in which there is an analytical study of events, was what Ibn Khaldun was interested in. Thus, he undertook the task of writing the Book of Ibaar (wise lessons from history). He writes in his preface about his theory of history or historiography.  He describes how he developed the solution to the problem of scrutinizing the historical accounts based on their veracity. The traditional method that Islamic historical narrations used was to study the authority of the chain of narrators of a historical report critically which Ibn Khaldun supplemented with a new science he developed -- the Science of Culture -- to valida...
Read more