The Prophetic Biography and the Foundationalization of Ethics

Title: The Prophetic Biography and the Foundationalization of Ethics

Source: https://youtu.be/B_o6ZozjrzM?si=iF3Pw0TJXtPhXkPg

The source video above captures a lecture delivered by Prof. Dr. Taha Abderrahmane in Istanbul on July 31, 2024. It was translated by ʿAqil Azme who re-uploaded it from the original video by Islâm Düșünce Enstitüsü (IDE). The following is a transcript of ʿAqil Azme's translated video recorded by Ilyas Habeeb.

This video is transcribed primarily to facilitate my own understanding of what Prof. Dr. Taha Abderrahmane is lecturing, and secondly, to make the transcript accessible to others with the hope that it also helps them understand the lecture better.

  1. Introduction
  2. The Prophetic Biography
  3. The Intellectual Method
  4. Difference between Interpretation (Ta'wil) and Exegesis (Tafsir)
  5. Trusteeshipal Interpretation
  6. "I Was Sent to Complete Good Ethics"
  7. Foundationalization of Ethics
    1. The Two Essential Traits: Truthfulness and Trustworthiness
    2. The Two Types of Prophecy
      1. Does Perfection of Innate Nature Imply Prophecy by Innate Nature?
      2. What Does the Prophetic Mission Add?
      3. How did the Messenger of God ﷺ Ethicize his Companions
    3. Distinguishing Ethical Realities of the Prophet ﷺ
  8. Conclusion
  9. Q&A
  10. Notes of the Translator

0. Introduction

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

Blessings and peace be upon the Truthful and Trustworthy, and upon his noble family and companions.

Esteemed Professors, Esteemed Thinkers and Researchers: I do not know how to express to you my joy and pleasure from being in this kind country, which is merciful to those who seek shelter when they seek for it and merciful to those who seek protection when they seek for it.

This country has become a refuge for those who have none, a home for those who are homeless, and justice for those who are denied justice.

Truly, I feel that I am honored in every moment of my existence in this good land, every step I take is an honor for me. I love this country because I turn to you and to everything within it with my feeling. This feeling either fills me with happiness or with sorrow. But, praise be to God, upon my first encounter, the first step I took at the airport, I felt a sense of relief my heart and I felt that I was under the care of God, glorious and exalted is He.

I am grateful to you for taking from your precious time and from your great commitments to attend this session. This gratitude is what compels me to speak to you today and to speak to you on a topic beloved to me just as you all are beloved to me. The topic is the Prophetic Biography.

1. The Prophetic Biography

The Biography, though extensively studied by the predecessors, in a preoccupation that is esteemed and magnified, however, it is the Words of my Lord which are inexhaustible, manifested in Muhammad ﷺ.

These living Words, in which Divine Perfections are manifested, deserve the utmost diligence in study, which knows no bounds or limits. Its hues, shapes, levels, values, and purposes are inexhaustible. And from the veneration God — glorious and exalted is He — has for His Prophet in character and judgement in the Prophetic Biography we ought to dwell within it with all our perceptions and limbs, not that it dwells in us; for it encompasses us, and we can never encompass it.

These boundaries are what have constrained the examination of the Biography, boundaries that Man is forced into by his deficiencies and his striving to overcome these deficiencies.

These boundaries have led the people of theory ahl al-nazar, in the broad sense, and the people of narrations ahl al-khabar, also in the broad sense, to adhere to certain methods of theory and certain methods of narrations in this Biography.

It is known to all of you and I do not claim to be anything but a student of some of you when it comes to what is related to the Biography.

You know that there are three different methods that are well-known in studying the Biography:

  1. The Method of the Hadithists muhaddithin
  2. The Method of the Historians mu'arrikhin
  3. The Method of the Jurists fuqaha

But I wondered, why not another way to benefit from the Prophetic Biography?

I wanted a method that is neither as strict as the hadithic methodology nor as compelling as the juristic approach. If we consider these aspects or aims, we find ourselves needing to search for a method in philosophizing or in thought: an intellectual method tariqa fikriyya.

2. The Intellectual Method

This method (the intellectual method) also necessitates that ethics akhlaq should be considered one of its branches. This method is adopted because the philosophical domain also includes the domain of ethics which is values qiyam. Therefore, I took it upon myself to develop a philosophical theory or a philosophical examination of the Prophetic Biography. I adhered to three methodological principles in this endeavor:

  1. Principle of Resorting to Contemplation tafakkur rather than mere thinking takfir
    • because contemplation tafakkur involves examining things in consideration of their relation to Man, whereas [mere] thinking takfir examines things in and of themselves, not for the sake of Man.
  2. Principle of Considering Signs ayat
    • I do not think the meaning of "Sign" ayat is hidden from you.
    • A Sign is richer than an appearance zahir; in fact, everything is fundamentally a Sign, but humans have abstracted aspects of these Signs and called them phenomena zawahir.
    • A Sign encompasses values and encompasses events, thus it is anything that is combined within it aspects of existence (i.e., is) and necessity (i.e. ought).
  3. Principle of Adherence to the Covenants found in Revealed Scriptures
    • We have relied on five (error: the video only shows four @ 8:30) Covenants:
      1. The Covenant of Testimony mithaq al-ishhad, in which The True - glorious and exalted is He - calls upon one as a witness to His lordship, i.e., Adam's progeny testified to His lordship.
      2. The Covenant of Entrusting mithaq al-isti'man, in which God presented the Trust to Man.
      3. The Covenant of Sending mithaq al-irsal, in which God, glorious and exalted is He, tasked the chosen ones from His servants to deliver His Divine Laws.
      4. The Covenant of Distinguishment mithaq al-ikhtisas, in which the Messenger of God ﷺ was distinguished with virtues and distinctions that no others enjoy,

Of course, when we relied upon these three principles — Principle of Contemplation, Principle of Considering the Signs, and the Principle of Covenants — when we proceed from these axioms, I committed myself to accept these matters, and no one should say that I do not have the right to my acceptance of them.

Why? Because every scientific philosophical domain — every domain — necessarily has its axioms musallamat. So my axioms are these: there are Signs, there are Covenants, and there is Contemplation.

3. Difference between Interpretation (Ta'wil) and Exegesis (Tafsir)

These axioms required me to follow a method in examining the Biography; and this method must necessarily be an interpretative method tariqa ta'wiliyya. Of course, some of you may ask, "What is the difference between interpretation ta'wil and exegesis tafsir?"

Interpretation is one thing and exegesis is another. Exegesis Tafsir is the explanation of apparent and objective causes, while interpretation ta'wil is an explanation of ethical and spiritual meanings. The obligation of the interpreter is to explore the ethical and spiritual meanings, unlike the exegete.

4. Trusteeshipal Interpretation

Some of you may say, "There are many interpretations, What is your interpretation?"

What is the difference between my interpretation and, for example, those known in the West and others?

Trusteeshipal interpretation ta'wil i'timani is not the same as non-trusteeshipal interpretation. Non-trusteeshipal interpretation is an explanation of the general hidden meaning in things and maintaining ownership relations alaqa milkiyya with things without committing to the realization of the meanings that are inherent in them. However, trusteeshipal interpretation ta'wil i'timani is not an explanation of general meanings because there are existential meanings, and of course, there are ethical meanings, historical meanings, and others. But in the case of trusteeshipal interpretation, it explains the ethical and spiritual meanings specifically that are contained in the Signs by referring back to the Divine Covenants.

We can summarize the comprehensive definition of trusteeshipal interpretation of the Prophetic Biography, blessings and peace be upon him, as follows:

it should explain, in accordance with the Divine Covenants - not in accordance with anything else - the ethical values and spiritual meanings contained in the Signs of the Biography of the Seal of Prophets,

[The entire Biography is Signs, not mere phenomena. Whoever says the Biography is mere phenomena has made a mistake — and ignorant mistake, not a scholarly one!]

on the basis that the relation with these values and meanings should be one of trusteeship alaqa i'timan, not a relation of domination/possession alaqa imtilak, and that our practice of them should be through the way of emulation iqtida, not the way of initiation ibtida.

5. "I Was Sent to Complete Good Ethics"

As you all know, due to the fame of this Prophetic narration, that the Messenger ﷺ said: "I was sent to complete good ethics salih al-akhlaq".

Thus, the Prophetic call is an ethical call, confined within the ethical sphere. This is based on understanding ethics not in a limited meaning, but ethics in considering it as encompassing all actions, ways, and states of Man.

Therefore, in relation to us, when we say the Prophetic narration: "I was sent to complete noble ethics makarim al-akhlaq", it means that Islam is a religion of ethics, by considering that ethics encompass Man in action, ways, and states.

And of course, everyone and I say this because no one, perhaps out of ignorance of other sources, has given the signification of the term 'completing' tatmim a meaning other than 'perfecting' takmil — meaning that "I was sent to complete noble ethics" means "I was sent to perfect noble ethics."

Therefore, we will clarify our criticism of the understanding of 'completing' ethics because it will become clear that its meaning is not 'perfecting' ethics, but rather 'foundationalizing' ta'sis ethics.

6. Foundationalization of Ethics

If it is said 'the foundationalization of ethics ta'sis al-akhlaq,' then what comes to mind in the context of the Prophetic Biography?

Two meanings come to mind:

  1. Foundationalizing the Biography on Ethics
  2. Foundationalizing Ethics based on the Prophetic Biography

1 can never be accepted by virtue of the Prophetic narration: "I was sent to complete noble ethics." because it is the Messenger who perfects ethics —even if we assume that the meaning is 'perfecting' — and not the reverse: it is not ethics that perfects the Messenger, so that is why this first meaning cannot be accepted.

We will demonstrate this foundationalization, but we must enter with means that guide us in this reasoning.

Firstly, the first means: a historical means. We were preceded in the philosophical examination of the Prophetic biography by two great figures — ibn al-Nafĩs and ibn Khaldūn — and you will find details about this matter in the book.

However, my critique of them explains that ibn al-Nafis was ultimately incognizant of the importance of the concept of value [qima], and my critique of ibn Khaldun explains that he missed the concept of the Covenant.

These are two fundamental points:

So, what are ethics? They are "the attributes that are inherited through the practice of values defined by the Covenants."

Therefore, the second step required me to replace the methodologies of ibn Khaldun and ibn al-Nafis with my methodology.

ibn al-Nafis followed logical argumentation [istidlal mantiq] in analyzing the Prophetic Biography, logical proof; while ibn Khaldun followed historical reasoning [ta'lil tarikhi] in his analysis of the biography.

Thus, we say that ibn al-Nafis relied on logical argumentation while ibn Khaldun relied on historical reasoning, whereas the analysis we relied on is interpretative analysis [tahlil ta'wili] as we have said. And this interpretation requires us to resort to values in everything.

And since the perfection of the innate nature [kamal al-fitra] in the Messenger ﷺ, in values and Covenants, does not manifest in anyone as it does in the Final Messenger, it is imperative that his Prophetic Biography be the groundwork upon which ethics are elevated.

The perfection of his innate nature [kamal al-fitra] manifested in two forms — and this is a point of utmost importance — manifested in two forms:

6.1 The Two Essential Traits: Truthfulness and Trustworthiness

The Embodiment of his noble essence in two encompassing [jami'] traits which are:

  1. The Perfection of Truthfulness [kamal al-sidq]; and
  2. The Perfection of Trustworthiness [kamal al-amana].

You might ask, "How can these two virtues be encompassing?" They are encompassing for many reasons, one of which we will mention.

Truthfulness [Sidq] occupies a central position in ethics such that every ethical trait can be ascribed to it to form a specified ascription.

As for trustworthiness [amana], it is an expression for the sum of all ethics such that every ethical trait can be ascribed to it to form a generalized ascription.

Therefore, the conclusion we draw from this is that Muhammad ﷺ, in him being characterized before his Prophetic mission with these two encompassing traits of truthfulness and trustworthiness, was characterized with all good ethics entirely!

6.2 The Two Types of Prophecy

I have dared and ventured to consider the perfection of innate nature [kamal al-fitra] before the Prophetic mission — and the meaning of the perfection of innate nature is that it unites all of ethics — I dared to attribute prophecy to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, before the Prophetic mission, although it was a special kind of prophecy, and I will mention its characteristic.

I opine that we must distinguish between two types of prophecy:

  1. Prophecy by Innate Nature [nubuwwa bi'l-fitra],
  2. Prophecy by Sacred Law [nubuwwa bi'l-shir'a].

The Messenger, before his Prophetic mission, was a prophet by innate nature [nabi bi'l-fitra], and after his Prophetic mission, he became a prophet by Sacred Law [nubuwwa bi'l-shir'a] in addition to the prophecy by innate nature. I have detailed this in my book, and you can refer back to it.

6.2.1 Does Perfection of Innate Nature imply Prophecy by Innate Nature?

Some of you, some readers may say — since you are in the presence of the Biography, there is no fear for you — some of them may say: "Perhaps, the perfection of innate nature [kamal al-fitra] does not necessitate prophecy by innate nature [nubuwwa bi'l fitra]."

So to clarify this point, what I am reading now is merely a conclusion that is made concise. Every word, every judgment, or every issue, I have already proven them and demonstrated inside this book. However, I made them concise so as not to miss conveying a summary of this book.

For example, truthfulness [sidq] — if we take truthfulness, the characterial truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is different from truthfulness among other people because the truthfulness of the Messenger ﷺ necessitates the preservation of The Truth.

And what is The Truth [Al-Haqq] according to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ? It is the Oneness of God. Thus, the preservation of truthfulness for the Messenger of Allah entails monotheism [tawhid].

When the Messenger is called 'the Truthful' [al-Sadiq], it means that he is a monotheist [muwahhid], not just that he merely corresponds with (external) reality because he is the truth. Therefore, there is no truthfulness for the prophet of innate nature [nabi al-fitra] without monotheism.

Let's turn to the concept of trustworthiness [amana]. Therefore, when the Messenger was called — even when the Quraysh disbelievers called him the Truthful — they unknowingly testify to his monotheism because his truthfulness is linked to the preserving of The Truth. The same applies to the trustworthiness of his character.

The trustworthiness of his character is distinct from that of other people because this trustworthiness necessitates the preservation of duty, and duty according to him is to give each their due right — meaning that the trustworthiness of the character of the Messenger of God necessitates justice in all things. There is no trustworthiness for the prophet of innate nature [nabi al-fitra] without justice.

6.2.2 What Does the Prophetic Mission Add?

The Messenger ﷺ, before his Prophetic mission, was monotheistic and just. As for after the Prophetic mission, some might say, "What does the Prophetic mission add?"

No, it adds many things which are endless, as after the Prophetic mission, truthfulness ascends to another level — it transitions from belief in monotheism to the rank of signifying servitude ['ubudiyya] to God. Thus, there is no truthfulness in regard to the Messenger after the Prophetic mission without servitude to God. Every truthful statement by the Messenger of God ﷺ realize absolute servitude to God.

Likewise, trustworthiness, after the Prophetic mission, becomes different from trustworthiness before the Prophetic mission, as it rises from the rank of signifying justice to the rank of signifying excellence [ihsan]. Thus, there is no trustworthiness in regard to the Messenger after the Prophetic mission without excellence [ihsan].

The perfection of the innate nature [kamal al-fitra] in the Messenger of God is different from the perfection — if we assume the existence of the perfection of innate nature in others, which does not exist, but if we assume that it does  — it is not sufficient that the Messenger ﷺ embodied just this. Rather, his perfection lies in ethicizing [takhliq] his Companions; if he did not ethicize his companions, then his own innate perfection [fitra] would not be considered perfect.

However, the perfection of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was such that he was not satisfied with merely ethicizing his companions with truthfulness and trustworthiness. His intention was to ethicize them with perfection of truthfulness [kamal al-sidq] and perfection of trustworthiness [kamal al-amana].

And not just with mere truthfulness to stop at believing in the Oneness of God, he wanted to elevate them to the level of servitude of God, glorious and exalted is He.

In the same way, he did not just want to ethicize them with mere justice, but to elevate them to the level of excellence [ihsan].

Therefore, the Messenger of God ﷺ was greater than his community [umma] in his goals, but this community [umma] today does not deserve this Messenger ﷺ. I do not say everyone, for the best among people are always existent, but I say this feeling in a sense of our shortcoming.

6.2.3 How did the Messenger of God ﷺ Ethicize his Companions?

He began with their intellects, he began by ethicizing their intellects in Mecca based on the Covenant of Testimony, which is the foundation in truthfulness. He ethicized them based on the Covenant of Testimony in Mecca, meaning he wanted them to have different intellects, monotheistic intellects, intellects striving towards the rank of servitude to God, glorious and exalted is He. So, he undertook the upbringing of ethicizing their minds in Mecca.

The Messenger wanted to encompass his companions, encompass all their conduct [suluk]. He had ethicized their intellects, leaving one thing for the preparedness of Man, which is the will [irada]. He ethicized their will in Medina in accordance with the Covenant of Entrusting [mithaq al-istiman].

And the Messenger ﷺ unified two aspects of Man that define the Man: the intellect and the will. He started with the intellect and then with the will: this gives us lessons on how to raise our children and nurture our generations.

After the Messenger of God ﷺ had completed:

6.3 Distinguishing Ethical Realities of the Prophet ﷺ

From here, we arrive at three fundamental ethical realities that the Messenger of God ﷺ was distinguished with:

  1. The completion of ethics, for which the Messenger of God ﷺ was sent, was not just a quantitative completion of existing ethics.

    I do not say that it is not a perfecting. It is a perfecting! But it was not only just a perfecting. In fact, it was not merely adding other unprecedented values to what the prophets before him, blessings and peace be upon them, brought, but rather it was a qualitative perfecting.

    This is a point of utmost importance: It is a qualitative perfecting, not quantitative, meaning he transformed the state of truthfulness and the state of trustworthiness before the Messenger of God ﷺ; he did not increase them but transformed their condition.

    I feel a sense of trustworthiness with the Messenger of God ﷺ, in a way I did not feel before his Prophetic mission.

    He renewed the practice and interaction with previous values. The values after the Messenger of God ﷺ are different from the values before the Messenger of God ﷺ. And this renewal of all values took place — i.e., whether those that had previously been conveyed by the prophets or those that he was specified to convey — based on these two pivotal values: truthfulness and trustworthiness.

  2. The second ethical truth is that the completion of ethics by the Messenger of God ﷺ was not only a quantitative and qualitative perfecting but also an ascending perfecting, as he adhered to a profession in the levels of Perfection, not merely horizontal perfecting.

    The evidence for this is that he made truthfulness and trustworthiness into two levels for each of them — for example, monotheism and servitude in terms of truthfulness, and justice and goodness in terms of trustworthiness — this is merely an example, and it does not stop there.

    He wants his community to be at this level; if it achieves the perfection of servitude, then the Messenger ﷺ is pleased with that, and if it reaches the perfection of goodness, the Messenger ﷺ is pleased with that.

    But above these two perfections are perfections only he knows.

  3. The third and final ethical truth is that the completion — always using the word completion in reference to the Prophetic narration — that the completion of ethics by the Messenger of God ﷺ was not the ethicization [takhliq] of some values to the exclusion of others, but was the ethicization with all values!

    And it was not the ethicization of some capacities without others; no, he ethicized vision, hearing, touch, taste — he ethicized all perceptions, not just some without the others. It is an ethicization whose effect extends to all capacities, so he did not ethicize the intellect without the effect of this ethicization extending to the will, or ethicize the will without the effect of this ethicization extending to the intellect.

To summarize concisely what we mentioned before, it becomes clear then that what the Messenger of God ﷺ called 'the completion of ethics' [tatmin al-akhlaq] is in reality an expression for a clear foundationalization [ta'sis] of ethics!

Since this completion was the primary concern of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and since this completion was the main concern throughout his honorable Biography in its universality, the Prophetic Biography has indeed become the foundation of ethics.

7. Conclusion

From this, certain fundamental truths follow, some derived from others. We mention three of these fundamental truths and conclude the presentation, God willing.

  1. What should be the foundation of ethics cannot simply be a set of abstract values predetermined through examination, but rather it must be a living ethical conduct [suluk] that neither fades nor diminishes.
  2. The second fundamental truth is that this living ethical conduct, which forms the foundation of ethics, must be a model [namudha] conduct. It is not possible for there to be conducts, but they are not model conducts; they need to be modelic such that they are beyond surpassing and matchless.
  3. The third truth is that this model assumes the role of a good example [qudwa hasana] that calls for modeling oneself after its morals and adopting its values. This means that the foundation of ethics cannot be an abstract intellectual relationship, nor can it even be a notional [i'tibariyya] relationship, these do not suffice. It must be an imitative [iqtida'iyya] relationship that necessitates the foundation of the modelity of the Messenger ﷺ.

We say in conclusion, and succinctly, the trusteeship [i'timani] approach arrives, thanks to the interpretative [ta'wili] method, at establishing that the Prophetic Biography foundationalizes ethics with an imitative [iqtida'i] foundationalization.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of God the Exalted, and thank you all for your attention.

8. Q&A

Student or Other Professor:

Abderrahmane Taha:

Notes of the Translator

  1. The book that Taha is referring to throughout this lecture, which this lecture is based on, is his latest work, ‘Su’āl al-Sīra al-Falsafiyya’.

  2. Taha’s distinction between contemplation [tafakkur] and (mere) thinking [tafkīr] is further elaborated upon in his other lecture, “The Distinction Between Contemplation and Thinking”.

  3. A Sign [āya] for Taha is something that combines ontology and ethics together, as opposed to a phenomenon which is mere ontology. This is a response to Hume’s Is-Ought Problem which states that one cannot derive prescriptive statements (what ought to be, i.e. ethics) from descriptive statements (what is the case, i.e. ontology). See Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (Book III, part I, section I) for more details. For Taha’s more direct critique of this, see his work ‘Su’āl al-Akhlāq’.

  4. For a more metaphysical explanation of the Covenant of Testimony [mīthāq al-ishhād], viewers might find it helpful to peruse Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attās’ work ‘Islam: The Covenants Fulfilled’.

  5. To understand Taha’s paradigm of ‘trusteeship’ [i’timānī], see his work ‘al-Ta’sīs al-I’timānī li-ʿIlm al-Maqāṣid’, or a secondary work on the topic in English, ‘Islamic Ethics and the Trusteeship Paradigm’.

  6. ibn al-Nafīs’ work on the Prophetic Biography referred to is the ‘al-Risāla al-Kāmiliyya fī ‘l-Sīrah al-Nabawiyya’ which was translated into Latin as the ‘Theologus Autodidactus’, which is a philosophical novel.

  7. The ethicization of intellect that Taha is referring to is related to the transformation from denuded reason [ʿaql mujarrad] to enhanced reason [ʿaql mu’ayyad]. See his work ‘al-ʿAmal al-Dīnī’ for more information on the different levels of reason.

  8. The word for “ḍāll” in the verse 93:7 has been rendered as “searching”. One of the literal meanings of “ḍāll” is ‘astray’ as ibn Manẓūr says in ‘Lisān al-ʿArab’: “the opposite of guidance [hudā] and right path [rashād]”.

    However, as Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī says in his commentary of this verse in his linguistic exegsis ‘al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ’: “This cannot be interpreted as the misguidance that is the opposite of guidance [hudā], for the prophets are infallible from that.

    Sayyidunā ibn ʿAbbās’ (may God be pleased with him!) opinion is that it refers to the Prophet being lost as a child in the valleys of Mecca, then God returned him to his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. It has also been said: His ﷺ being lost from Ḥalīma, his wet nurse, and another opinion is that he got lost on the way to Shām when Abū Ṭālib took him out.

    Some commentators have expressed opinions that include things that should not be attributed to the prophets, blessings and peace be upon them.”

And God and His Emissary ﷺ knows best.