Author: Nael Abd El-Rahaman

University: McGill University

Date of Award: Winter 2023

Abstract:

This thesis is primarily a study of the concept of Hell in Islam as it was imagined by early Muslims. Hell in Islam has received limited attention by Muslim and Western scholars of Islam, even though it occupies an important place in the events of the Day of Judgment and in the minds of those interested in learning about the Day of Judgment according to Islam.

The relative lack of information about Jahannam, particularly in languages other than Arabic, is among the reasons for the paucity of literature by Western scholars. This study provides information about Jahannam and takes on the task of giving Jahannam the attention it deserves. A general view of Jahannam in Islam will be introduced as well as its topography, its inhabitants, and the types of punishments used in it. In addition, the issue of its permanency will be discussed.

This investigation will focus on the thoughts of the first three generations without introducing later understandings, beliefs, or imaginations. Therefore, it will set aside what is currently said about Jahannam and examines what early generations said about it.

Nael Abd El-Rahaman argues that authentic hadith did in fact reflect early Muslims’ understanding of Jahannam. Therefore, the study will substantially rely on what was said by the Prophet related to Jahannam in addition to what is written in the Qurʾān regarding it. As hadith serves as a lamp to shed light on the way early Muslim perceived Jahannam, this study will address methodological and terminological issues related to hadith and discuss how the methods of early hadith critics proved to be reliable in hadith authentication processes.

In relation to the issue of hadith authenticity, the study will introduce and explore what later came to be the science of Uṣūl al-Hadith and its related genera. It will also touch on the problem of tadlīs (concealing the defects in a hadith) and how hadith critics were aware of it.

Furthermore, because Western scholars generally agree that early hadith critics limited their authentication of hadith to examining isnād (the chain of narrators), the study will also discuss matn or naṣṣ (text) criticism, in particular during the early period of Islam, by providing examples of such criticism applied by al-Ṣaḥābah.

Read the full text HERE.

Source: McGill University

“No-one has the right to employ violence or the threat of violence to advance a religion, religious beliefs, or religious laws,” say the authors of the text, American legal scholar Brian Lepard, theologian Amir Hussain of Loyola Marymount University, Vivian Lee-Nyitray of the University of California, and Daniel Cere and Arvind Sharma of the Faculty of Theology at Canada’s McGill University.

Ironically, only days after the declaration was released, alleged terrorist attacks in three communities in the United States inflamed anger and hostility at acts of violence perpetrated in the name of religion.

Work on a declaration of human rights in the name of the world’s religions began in 1998 at the suggestion of McGill University’s Faculty of Theology. The initiative coincided with celebrations to mark the 50^th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and was intended to create a declaration to complement the UN statement. Early drafts were discussed at academic conferences as well as at a UNESCO conference on inter-religious dialogue in Barcelona in 2002 and by the Parliament of the World’s Religions at its meeting in Durban, Australia in 2009.  Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi presented a revised version in 2006 at the first Global Conference of World’s Religions after September 11.

The final text released this month in Montreal states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right includes freedom to choose, retain or change one’s religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in a community with others and in public or private, to manifest one’s religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

The 3^rd Global Conference on World’s Religions following September 11, held at McGill University and convened by Arvind Sharma, featured a list of high-profile religious academics, activists and writers including Gregory Baum, known for his role as theological advisor to the Ecumenical Secretariat during the Second Vatican Council, celebrated author Karen Armstrong, Indian spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and professor of Jewish studies Susannah Heschel.

The inaugural Global Conference on World Religions held in Montreal in 2006 was called in response to terrorist attacks on sites in the United States on September 11, 2001. The objective of the conferences has been to address the potential of the world’s religions to be agents of peace at a time when religion has, in Sharma’s words, become a “byword for evil, aggression and terror”. The Montreal event, held under the theme From Faith to Interfaith, was the final conference in the series. Co-sponsors included the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies and the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism.

Source: The World Council of Churches

Project Leaders:

Prof. F. Jamil Ragep: Scientific Traditions in Islamic Societies (STIS)

Prof. Robert Wisnovsky: Post-classical Islamic Philosophy Database Initiative (PIPDI)

Centered at McGill University, the project to study the rational sciences in Islam will investigate the philosophical, scientific, and theological traditions of Islam in a holistic manner. The primary goal is to increase understanding of how Muslim scholars and the various publics making up Islamic societies explored the world through rational means, and the products and consequences of those explorations. This complex project is made up of three components: the Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative (ISMI), the Post-classical Islamic Philosophy Database Initiative (PIPDI), and Scientific Traditions in Islamic Societies (STIS) project.

Members:

• Dr. Sally Ragep

Senior Researcher

Email: sally.ragep@mcgill.ca

Former Members:

• Dr. Taro Mimura, Research Associate (2008-2012)
• Dr. Ihsan Fazlioglu, Visiting Professor (2008-2011)
• Mr. Adam Gacek, Faculty Lecturer and Research Associate (2008-2011)
• Mr. Sajjad Nikfahm Khubravan (2012-2013)
• Dr. Reza Pourjavady (2008-2013)
• Mr. Sergey Turkin (2008-2013)

Source: Institute of Islamic Studies – McGill University