E-Book Overview
Cook has achieved something special in this work. He demonstrates that he is a rare and gifted scholar with an awesome ability to intregrate vast seas of thought into one coherent whole. This work covers "Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong" from its origins in the Koran up until modern times, though he focuses upon the classical period throughout the vast majority of his book. All sects with a significant body of material are represented. Why this topic?-- Basically, this doctrine has historically proved to be the major foundation of any Islamic social ethic; therefore, how it is concieved usually predetermines how one thinks justice ought to be established in this word or by whom it should be established. Cook possesses a talent for giving seemingly distant and irrelevant doctrines a timely relation to today insofar as his studies illuminates how two different cultures approach moral actions in their respective societies. Parts of this book are vast and copiously detailed; however, it was exhaustively documented and extremely efficiently organized throughout. Thus, it is enormously accessible and immensely useful for reference as well. The high price is unfortunate, but it is without a doubt worth the money for anyone interested in Islamics.
E-Book Content
COMMANDING RIGHT AND FORBIDDING WRONG IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT MICHAEL COOK Cambridge University Press COMMANDING RIGHT AND FORBIDDING WRONG IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT What kind of duty do we have to try to stop other people doing wrong? The question is intelligible in just about any culture, but few of them seek to answer it in a rigorous fashion. The most striking exception is found in the Islamic tradition, where ‘commanding right and forbidding wrong’ is a central moral tenet already mentioned in the Koran. As a historian of Islam whose research has ranged widely over space and time, Michael Cook is well placed to interpret this complex yet fascinating subject. His book, which represents the first sustained attempt to map the history of Islamic reflection on this obligation, covers the origins of Muslim thinking about ‘forbidding wrong’, the relevant doctrinal developments over the centuries in all the major Islamic sects and schools, and its significance in Sunnı¯ and Shı¯ ite thought today. In this way, the book contributes to the understanding of contemporary Islamic politics and ideology and raises fundamental questions for the comparative study of ethics. M I C H A E L C O O K is Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University. His publications include Population Pressure in Rural Anatolia, 1450–1600 (1972), Early Muslim Dogma (1981) and most recently The Koran: A Very Short Introduction (2000). COMMANDING RIGHT AND FORBIDDING WRONG IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT • MICHAEL COOK PRINCETON UNIVERSITY The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Michael Cook 2004 First published in printed format 2001 ISBN 0-511-01868-1 eBook (netLibrary) ISBN 0-521-66174-9 hardback CONTENTS • Preface Acknowledgements page ix xv PA RT I : I N T R O D U C T O R Y • 1. T H E G O L D S M I T H O F M A R W 2. K O R A N A N D K O R A N I C E X E G E S I S 1. The Koran without the exegetes 2. Koranic exegesis 3. T R A D I T I O N 1. 2. 3. 4. The ‘three modes’ tradition Other traditions of positive tendency Traditions of negative tendency Conclusi