Universality and Particularity - a podcast by Cambridge Khutbas Etc.

Talk - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 18th June 2012 - 45mins 38secs

Praise be to Allah, Lord of theWorlds!

Islam is not just a large religion, it is religion at large."I am sent to all mankind" 
  
As British society agonises over cases of prejudice against ethnic minorities in this supposedly post-racist age the universalising message of Islam is a much welcome one. The Sheikh discusses this message, why classical Islamic civilisations were able to be so diverse.

 One reasonmay be that the Qur'an, unlike theBible, isnot aboutthe continuity of a people butratherprinciples.It isnot about the drama of a people, not a Judaism of the Arabs.The Islamic story begins with Abraham and Hagar rather than one of hisdescendents,echoed in the centralrites of Hajj. theProphet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be uponhim, andthe Arabs are ofSemitic lineage but also from the gentile Hagar, something that calls on Islam to bea messagefor the world, not one particulartribe. Thisis noted in the language of the Qur'an itself:when Arab is mentioned it usually denotes the language rather than the people. Classically in Malikilaw an Arab is one who can speak the language well, rather than one who has a certain set of genes. Ifanythingthe Qur'an disparages 'it's people', the contemporary Arabs as they were they propagatorsofthejahiliyyathatIslam came to destroy.Thus the Sheikh notes that Abraham is the forefather of a universalism that co-exists with particularism. Most Islamic cities were incredibly heterogenous, yet the set of core practices remained stableand familiar. The sacred law itself is race-blind, and so whilst we have a legitimate claim tobelong to the culture of ourancestors, we also know that thismattersnot to the Heavenly Judge in terms of proximity to Himin this life and the next.

Pictureof a courtyard inthe Alcazar, Seville. Taken by the CKETC team

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