Islamic advice literature

Islamic advice literature may include collections of stories or anecdotes such as legal opinion, interpretation of religious text, legal theory, guidance, consultation, or Islamic stories.[1] They are usually printed on small leaflets, and often involve advice from individuals or authorities.[2][3][4][2][5][6] By contrast, Nasîhat and advice literature can come from secular, non-Ulama (scholars) too.[6][7] Unlike Fiqh Tafsir and Fatwa, or Nasîhat based on them, advice can go beyond religious scriptural realm or even seen to take support of otherwise not easily admissible Hadith or religious rulings in order to make normative pleas.[7][8]

According to Gudrun Kramer, individuals in Muslim societies may urge religious and moral advice, and individuals may be passionate in providing their advice on far-reaching topics. These topics may be mundane — for example, whether or not it is okay to wear a wig according to the norms of their community.[6] Hence, according to Marzieh Bashirpour, social behavior of Muslims is deeply influenced by advice literature.[9]

Means of providing advice

Means of providing Islamic advice includes traditional as well as modern technologies. In Egypt's Al-Azhar University did set up 'advice / fatwa kiosks' at subway stations.[10] In 2000 AD Al-Azhar University introduced a phone-in advice service called "Dial-a-Sheikh"[11]

Islamizing the Islamic State

According to Luke Yarbrough, early Islamic state (Caliphates) heavily depended on non-Arabs, frequently non-Muslim civil, officials specially by the late Umayyad and early 'Abbasid states. The situation started to change in the 8th century as Muslims began to compete for social and economic benefits by using religious leverage.[12] By the 9th century, Islamic jurists began to oppose employment of non-Muslims with little influence but major formal shift started coming by the 12th century, when independent advice literature campaigned for dismissal of non-Muslim civil officials.[12]

Jennifer A. London looks at then scholarly import and presentations of medieval fables as part of advice literature which spoke about political thoughts through characters employed in those literature as mirror for princes.[5]

According to Sami Helewa, prophetic anecdotes about Joseph, David and Soloman called "'Qisas' al-anbiya" by 9th century AD Persian Islamic scholar Al-Tabari and subsequently 11th century AD scholar Al-Tha'labi served as advice literature to medieval Islamic rulers.[1][13]

A 10th-century anonymous Arabic manuscript is seen giving advice to rulers through the rhymes like "an: yasüsu I- 'âmmata bi-siyâsati l-qur'ân, wal- khàssa bi-siyàsati l-zamán". (Translation: (Ruler/administrator) must rule over the general public; ['ámma] according to the policy of the Qur'an and over the elite [khâssa] according to the policy [suitable at the given] time') with a religious undertone. At times, advice goes beyond religious and suggests administrative policies through rhymes like "ba: ya'taqilu gundahu bil-raghba, là bil-rahba" (translation: "The ruler must bind the army to him through [exciting] their desires, not through [playing on] their fear").[14]

Karakhanid writer Yusuf Balasaghuni wrote Islamic advice literature in Kutadgu Bilig (The Wisdom of Felicity), the only known literary work written in Turkic from the Karakhanid period.[15][16]

Ebrahim Moosa and Nicholas Roberts, in "Expressions of Political Quietism in Islamic History" in Political Quietism in Islam: Sunni and Shi’i Practice and Thought (Saud al-Sarhan, ed.), state that in medieval times, despite the backdrop of power of Muslim empire in which political quietism became a virtue of ideal citizens, the genre of Nasîhat and advice literature started thriving.[17] According to al-Sarhan, the goal of advice literature then in those times was to help preserve political authority as part of pragmatic quiet activity.[17] al-Sarhan further states that while Siyasat nama by Nizam al-Mulk (1092 AD), Nasihat al-Muluk by al-Ghazali (1111 AD), al-siyasa al-shar'iyya by ibn Taymiyya while epitomizing political activism on one hand very much gave into the divinely sanctioned absolutism of the caliphs on other hand.[17] Strategy through advice literature was subtle expression of political activism calling for equitable and sound governance within four corners of religious diktats while continuation of pragmatic obedience to authority in power.[17] But to quote suitable advice literature explores from beyond religion, for example one political theorist of 11th century al-Mawardi attributes a pre-Islamic 6th-century quote of al-Afwah al-Awdi: "There is no benefit in leaderless people when disorder reigns, and they will never have a leader if the ignorant amongst them leads." al-Sarhan says that first half of quote conforms to political quietism as labeled by modern scholars same time second half matches with expectations of obedient religious Muslim citizen of a just and sharia compliant rule.[17]

Giving example of Zoroastrianism becoming invisible post 8th century AD from Persian literature, Ali Pirzadeh says that Islamic literature and Islamic advice literature wipes out most traces of local culture and heritage by giving exclusive prominence to Arabic narratives.[18] Ali Pirzadeh further says that Iranian empire encouraged advice literature to hide their incompetence caused due to hereditary succession and to retain servitude of vested interests.[18]

Social Islamization

In early and medieval centuries Sufi literature including their advice literature played a substantial role in spreading Sufi Islamic values among Muslim masses. In early Turkish classical advice literature Yunus Emre a (probable) 13th century poet's Risâletü'n-Nushiyye[19], Feridüddin Attar's Pend-nâme, Sa'dî's Bostan and Gulistan, and Mesnevi of Mevlana, Ahmed Fakih's Çarh-nâme (794–798) played substantial role among Turkish Muslim culture and masses. According to Agnès Nilüfer Kefeli borders between high and popular Islam are often blur; since Arabic was not easily accessible to commoners folk tales were used as popular method of instructions of Islam that included sufi books.[20]

Persecution of dissent

Medieval monarchs and caliphs could persecute most kind of dissent which did not suit them: ibn Tayyamiya was jailed six times in the early 14th century when he wandered from then a popular saying "Sixty years of unjust ruler are better than one night without a ruler"[17]

Gender

Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanavi's Bihishti Zevar, published in 1905, influenced the continuation of traditional patriarchal gendered role narratives among south Asian Muslims.[9] Marzieh Bashirpour theorizes that Urdu advice literature's emphasis on adab politeness in interaction molded class differentiation between the literate and non illiterate and thereby validated discrimination toward the lower classes.[9] Late 19th century and early twentieth century revival reformists promoted women's education, but their advice literature centered on making women better mothers equipped for better household management.[21]

gollark: So maybe you could make a really small USB 2.0 drive on just one PCB, like this: [please wait]
gollark: There are USB WiFi sticks which are barely bigger than the USB-A connector.
gollark: That sounds cool. I wonder how small you can make USB sticks these days.
gollark: Some of the time it's actually just an AI designed to occasionally post memes, answer/complain about very simple questions and talk about potatOS.
gollark: Bold of you to assume I actually have a job, let alone one in which I interact with the horrors of Windows.

See also

References
  1. Helewa Sami S.J.'s
  2. Suleiman, Yasir (2010-04-21). Living Islamic History: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4219-9.
  3. Daryaee, Touraj (2012-02-16). The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-020882-0.
  4. Marlow, Louise (1995). "Kings, Prophets and the 'Ulamā' in Mediaeval Islamic Advice Literature". Studia Islamica (81): 101–120. doi:10.2307/1596021. ISSN 0585-5292. JSTOR 1596021.
  5. ""Speaking through the voice of another": Forms of political thought and action in Medieval Islamic contexts - ProQuest". search.proquest.com. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  6. Krämer, Gudrun; Schmidtke, Sabine (2014-01-01), "Introduction: Religious Authority and Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies. A Critical Overview", Speaking for Islam, BRILL, doi:10.1163/9789047408864_002, ISBN 978-90-04-14949-6
  7. Fuchs, Simon Wolfgang (2018-05-15). "Die islamische Ehe in Südasien. Zeitgenössische Diskurse zwischen Recht, Ethik und Etikette, written by Johannes Rosenbaum, 2017". Islamic Law and Society. 25 (3): 311–313. doi:10.1163/15685195-00253P05. ISSN 0928-9380.
  8. Hambly, Gavin R. G. (1992). "Muhammad Baqir Najm-I Sani, Advice on the Art of Governance, an Indo-Islamic Mirror for Princes, trans. Sajida Sultana Alvi (SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies) (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989). Pp. 225". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 24 (1): 163–164. doi:10.1017/s0020743800001641. ISSN 0020-7438.
  9. Bashirpour, Marzieh (2013). Gender and Language a sociolinguistic study of interruption and overlap in simultaneous speech of Persian and Urdu speakers (Thesis). Aligarh Muslim University.
  10. Dahir, Abdi Latif. "A busy subway booth in Cairo is offering free Islamic advice to beat extremism". Quartz Africa. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  11. "Can a Muslim say happy Christmas to his friends?". The Independent. 2009-11-26. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  12. Yarbrough, Luke (2012). "Islamizing the Islamic State: The Formulation and Assertion of Religious Criteria for State Employment in the First Millennium AH". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. Suleiman, Yasir (2010-04-21). Living Islamic History: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4219-9.
  14. Sadan, J.; Silverstein, A. (2004-12-30). "Ornate manuals or practical adab? Some reflections on a unique work by an anonymous author of the 10th century CE". Al-Qanṭara. 25 (2): 339–355. doi:10.3989/alqantara.2004.v25.i2.138. ISSN 1988-2955.
  15. Larry Clark (2010), "The Turkic script and Kutadgu Bilig", Turkology in Mainz, Otto Harrasowitz GmbH & Co, p. 96, ISBN 978-3-447-06113-1
  16. Scott Cameron Levi; Ron Sela (2010). "Chapter 13 - Yusuf Hass Hajib: Advice to the Qarakhanid Rulers". Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources. Indiana University Press. pp. 76–81. ISBN 978-0-253-35385-6.
  17. al-Sarhan, Saud (2019-12-26). Political Quietism in Islam: Sunni and Shi'i Practice and Thought. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83860-765-4.
  18. Pirzadeh, Ali (2016-04-20). Iran Revisited: Exploring the Historical Roots of Culture, Economics, and Society. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-30485-4.
  19. Agency, Anadolu (2020-05-12). "Yunus Emre: Turkish folk poet on path of divine love". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  20. Kefeli, Agnès Nilüfer (2014-12-18). Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-5476-9.
  21. Singh, Shamsher (2010-12-31). "Social History of education in India 1900 to 1950". University.
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