{"id":14244,"date":"2021-03-25T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/?p=14244"},"modified":"2026-07-24T19:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:41:13","slug":"islamic-theologies-of-disasters-between-science-religion-and-messianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/islamic-theologies-of-disasters-between-science-religion-and-messianism\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic Theologies of Disasters: Between Science, Religion and Messianism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thematic issue edited by Abdessamad Belhaj <\/strong>(Catholic University of Louvain, CISMOC) and Haoues Seniguer<\/strong> (Sciences-Po Lyon, Triangle UMR 5206, Lyon)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Call for Papers for MIDEO<\/em> 38 (2023)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Covid-19 (k\u016bf\u012bd-19<\/em>) pandemic broke out around October-November 2019 in China. In addition to having become a global public health problem, it quickly became \u201ca total social fact\u201d (Mauss, 2013). It has effectively set in motion a plurality of institutions and social fields (economic, political, cultural and religious), within both national and international milieus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The epidemic (wab\u0101\u02be<\/em>) has thus generated its share of comments and religious glosses by prominent religious figures. For example, the Moroccan theologian A\u1e25mad al-Rays\u016bn\u012b<\/strong>, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars<\/a> (IUMS), stated with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic (\u01e7\u0101\u02bei\u1e25at k\u016br\u016bn\u0101<\/em>), that it belongs to \u201cthe tradition of trial\/affliction\u201d (sunnat al-ibtil\u0101\u02be<\/em>),[1]<\/a> so that both \u201cbeliever and reasonable men\u201d will further question how to \u201cbenefit\u201d from this \u201ctrial\u201d (yastaf\u012bdu min al-bal\u0101\u02be<\/em>), or \u201clessons\u201d (al-\u02bfibar wa-l-dur\u016bs<\/em>), from a spiritual and existential point of view so that, in the end, according to him, people can meditate on \u201ctheir way of life and behaviour\u201d (usl\u016bb \u1e25ay\u0101tihim wa-sul\u016bkihim<\/em>).[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, far from being satisfied with this consensual discourse, al-Rays\u016bn\u012b also took the opportunity to underline how the pandemic had revealed the extent of \u201cthe health (sal\u0101ma<\/em>) and wisdom (\u1e25ikma<\/em>) of all the laws and rules contained in the Islamic religion and its legislative regime (man\u1e93\u016bmatihi al-ta\u0161r\u012b\u02bfiyya<\/em>)\u201d. From his point of view, the pandemic would constitute \u201cthe best proof of the celestial character of Islam, valid in any place and at any time (\u1e63\u0101li\u1e25an li-kull mak\u0101n wa-zam\u0101n<\/em>)\u201d. He even claims that \u201cmany places in East Asia embraced Islam\u201d after the outbreak of the virus, because their inhabitants would have realized that its \u201claws and rules ensure the health and protection of humanity against all harm and evil (\u1e0darar wa-\u0161arr<\/em>)\u201d. As for the secretary general of the institution presided over by A\u1e25mad al-Rays\u016bn\u012b, the shaykh \u02bfAl\u012b Mu\u1e25y\u012b al-D\u012bn al-Qarad\u0101\u0121\u012b<\/strong>, \u201cthese epidemics and viruses\u201d (al-awbi\u02bea wa-l-fayr\u016bs\u0101t<\/em>) stem from the \u201cdestiny of God\u201d (qadar All\u0101h<\/em>). They are \u201cabsolute and living proof (min al-adilla al-qa\u1e6d\u02bfiyya al-mu\u0161\u0101hada<\/em>) of the power of God the Most High to decimate whom He wishes to decimate, and this, by the weakest of His soldiers (bi-a\u1e0d\u02bfaf \u01e7un\u016bdihi<\/em>)\u201d, referring in support of his demonstration to S\u016brat al-Mudda\u1e6f\u1e6fir<\/em> (74), verse 31: \u201cNone knows the soldiers of your Lord except He\u201d (wa-m\u0101 ya\u02bflamu \u01e7un\u016bd rabbika ill\u0101 huwa<\/em>). The pandemic is said to be an \u201caffliction\u201d, \u201cdiseases\u201d (amr\u0101\u1e0d<\/em>) by which God \u201cdisciplines Muslims and non-Muslims alike\u201d, conferring \u201con the believer tried by them, but filled with patience, the reward of martyrdom\u201d (a\u01e7r al-\u0161ah\u012bd<\/em>).[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the contemporary period, the Islamic theology of disasters has its real or presumed origins in Qur\u02be\u0101nic passages and prophetic traditions (Sunna<\/em>) that report calamities, whether proven, allegorical or eschatological: We think here of the battle of U\u1e25ud, the apocalyptic narratives, the punishment of the unbelievers by destruction, drowning, etc. S\u016brat al-Zalzala<\/em> (99), for example, illustrates the Qur\u02be\u0101nic imaginary of catastrophe as an apocalyptic event controlled or suppressed by divine omnipotence and justice. Following the Qur\u02be\u0101n, Muslim clerics have historically produced several types of religious literature in response to natural or human disasters: wars, epidemics, famines, earthquakes, etc. Probably the most ancient literature in this respect is that of the corpus of prophetic (or Im\u0101m\u012b<\/em> among the \u0160\u012b\u02bfa) traditions, sometimes messianic, sometimes pragmatic, tending to form a kind of theological norm in matters of disaster. Traces of this can be found in the chapters devoted to mi\u1e25an<\/em> (ordeals), fitan<\/em> (seditions), \u1e6d\u0101\u02bf\u016bn<\/em> (plague) or \u1e6dibb<\/em> (medicine), in the prophetic compilations flourishing in the 3\u02b3\u1d48\/9\u1d57\u02b0 century, as for example in the compilation al-\u01e6\u0101mi\u02bf al-\u1e63a\u1e25\u012b\u1e25<\/em> (\u201cThe Compendium of Authenticated Traditions\u201d) of al-Bu\u1e2b\u0101r\u012b<\/strong> (d. 256\/870). Al-Bu\u1e2b\u0101r\u012b considers that the epidemic is a destiny of God, a punishment and an ordeal; that contagion in itself does not exist (the plague being a divine creation in the traditionalist conception), furthermore raising the status of the dead by epidemic to that of martyrs, and, lastly, advising confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another, later and more sophisticated type of theological literature on disasters appears in theological-ethical treatises on epidemics (A\u1e25mad \u02bfI\u1e63\u0101m \u02bfAbd al-Q\u0101dir al-K\u0101tib<\/strong> counted 33 texts). Indeed, we know about thirty theological treatises composed by Muslim theologians and jurists on \u1e6d\u0101\u02bf\u016bn<\/em> (plague) or wab\u0101\u02be<\/em> (epidemic). The most influential treatise, which was authoritative in Sunni circles, is Ba\u1e0fl al-m\u0101\u02bf\u016bn f\u012b fa\u1e0dl al-\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf\u016bn<\/em> (\u201cOffering benevolence to the virtue of plague\u201d) composed by Ibn \u1e24a\u01e7ar al-\u02bfAsqal\u0101n\u012b<\/strong>, an Egyptian traditionist who died in 852\/1449. Ibn \u1e24a\u01e7ar al-\u02bfAsqal\u0101n\u012b discusses the role of the jinn in the epidemic, the status of the plague-dead (which becomes equal to that of the martyr), the importance of confinement in a plague-affected country, of repentance, of performing invocations to All\u0101h to ask for the lifting of the plague, and of adopting medical precautions and practices such as phlebotomy. There is also a late tradition attributed to the Prophet, which says that: \u201cThe plague is a martyrdom and a compassion for my community, a torture for the unbelievers\u201d, which raises the question of otherness and fear in the traditional view of disaster, danger or threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the \u0160\u012b\u02bfa side, the cleric Mu\u1e25ammad ibn al-\u1e24asan al-\u1e24urr al-\u02bf\u0100mil\u012b<\/strong> (d. 1104\/1693) dedicated a chapter of his summa of \u0160\u012b\u02bf\u012b jurisprudence Was\u0101\u02beil al-\u0160\u012b\u02bfa<\/em> (\u201cThe Instruments of the \u0160\u012b\u02bfa\u201d) to the question of the authorization to flee the places of the epidemic and plague, except in case of necessity to reside there, as is the case for combatants and border guards. This work displays all the flexibility of the theological \u0160\u012b\u02bf\u012b thinking in matter of (re)conciliation between the constraints of the emergency and the norms in force in the \u201cIm\u0101m\u012b\u201d tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research of Jacqueline Sublet<\/strong>, Josef van Ess<\/strong>, Boaz Shoshan<\/strong>, Lawrence I. Conrad<\/strong> and Justin K. Stearns<\/strong>, among others, show that beliefs about the epidemic were largely determined by theological discourses until the 19\u1d57\u02b0 century. Nevertheless, while this research is still scholarly relevant and useful, it lacks in part a closer analysis of the content of the traditions. Also, in view of the acuteness of this Islamic theology of catastrophes that has (re)deployed itself recently, especially in the predominantly Muslim world, some questions on continuities and discontinuities in the theological discourse remain to be questioned and further investigated. This includes questions relating to the norms and the ethical dilemmas that arise for practicing Muslims and their religious authorities: ethical dilemmas between destiny and human action, and in particular the responsibility before God and the whole of humanity; between the preservation of human life and the imperatives of observance of religious rites and rituals in the strict sense. Who caused the epidemic: God, the jinns or men (and which ones)? Should theologians interested in the question rely on science or revelation to explain epidemics and natural phenomena, but also to overcome, prevent or ward off disasters? What is the share of the sacred and of the secular or the profane in Islamic theologies? To what extent is the Islamic theology (or Islamic theologies) of disasters also and simultaneously a theology of fear, if not of responsibility\/culpability of human beings towards themselves and towards humanity? What difference does classical and contemporary Islamic discourse make between Muslims and non-Muslims in the face of the epidemic? How can we understand the different religious normative arguments used by the theologians? In this regard, are there any differences between Sunni and \u0160\u012b\u02bf\u012b literatures? Or between ancient and late literature on disasters or on human dramas? How do contemporary Muslim theologians seize upon classical religious literature to develop their view of the environment, the unleashing of natural elements, or even rebellion against the political order, etc.?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is to these major questions, among other possible ones, that this thematic issue of MIDEO<\/em> is devoted: the Islamic theology of catastrophes at different periods of history, in ancient, modern and contemporary theological thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n