Reviews for Knowing one another

The average rating for Knowing one another based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-05-24 00:00:00 Moe Fernandez Before sharing my responses to the book Knowing One Another: Shaping an Islamic Anthropology authored by Merryl Wyn Davies I would like to present a framework that on it I will build my criticism of the book. In Islamic thought there are distinct schools of thought called madhabs. These madhabs embody tradition and they have been our means to obtain a coherent Islamic understanding of the scripture throughout the centuries. This coherency is partly established through the usage of Usool al-Fiqh (Methodology of Islamic Jurisprudence) and through following tradition. Usool al-Fiqh is the activity of grounding interpretations and legitimizing them while the tradition embodied through the madhabs is what keeps these interpretations from veering off from the fundamentals of Islam. So, in summary, we can say that there are two criteria that need to be met before any interpretation is accepted by the community of Muslims, in other terms the Ummah: (1) being grounded in proper methodology, (2) being part of and connected to the tradition. The scripture is interpreted for the purpose of solving the problems relevant to the age. In our case, we make new interpretations to provide solutions to the problems presented by modernity. Solutions presented under the claim of being Islamic need to go through the aforementioned criteria to be accepted as solutions. After laying the groundwork I can now proceed to my criticism of the book. The author claims that the gate of ijtihad was closed during the thirteenth century and it was never truly opened up until today. This claim is a basic orientalist claim that does not reflect reality as Wael B. Hallaq stated in his article Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed? . If we were to accept this claim, we would have no reason to research or quote any scholar after the thirteenth century as we would have no reason to believe that they might have produced anything original. And if we are unaware of the scholarly discourse of these neglected centuries we would miss a lot in terms of more contemporary and relevant discussions in Islamic tradition. Another point that draws attention is that the author criticizes the Saudi clerics for their rigidness despite the Saudi clerics being on the same page with her regarding ijtihad. The Saudi clerics also believe that we must re-open the gate of ijtihad (which was never closed) and solve the problems of modernity. It would have been more appropriate if the author had found a more tradition bound scholar who did something like resisting the use of telephones, if there are such scholars. From here it is not a surprise that the author continues with quoting verses and providing interpretations to these verses which are nice in appearance but lack the power to meet any of the aforementioned criteria. As such, there is no reason to accept her interpretations of these verses and the general solution she is offering. She fails to persuade us not because we are staunch on rejecting her views, but because her suggestions are weak when it comes to the criteria. For example, the meaning she gives to nafs is one possible meaning among many, but while it is one of the possible meanings she doesn't provide any reasoning as to why it should be the most reasonable meaning. This method of providing a reasoning for an interpretation is actually alluded to in the Arabic word for interpretation: ta'weel. Ta'weel means to prioritize something in general and when it is used as a term it means to prioritize a certain meaning among the possible meanings. If we were to prioritize the author's favored meaning without any reason dictating us to do so, we would have closed the field to any further methodological discourse. While I disagree with the author in general, there were some very good and insightful parts in the book too. For example, in page 66 the author makes some excellent remarks regarding apologetics and their shortcomings which resounded with me. There were many other remarks that gave me more to think on, but in the end I don't think I approve of the way the author tries to present a solution to us. I think I benefited in understanding the problems of modernity with the help of this book although I can't say the same regarding the solutions offered to these problems.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-11-01 00:00:00 Wilfredo Yau Interesting book about the rise and fall of the J. Peterman Company. Written as part biography, part philosphy, and part business book. Filled with interesting quotes and ideas. I the parts dealing with how they aquired the catalog items and the history of the company. The business aspects put me to sleep though.