Reopening Muslim Minds

Mustafa Akyol

CONTENTS

A NIGHT WITH THE RELIGION POLICE
A Visit to 'the Inquisition'
'No Compulsion' - and Its Limits
A Matter of Enlightenment

A SELF-MADE MAN: HAYY IBN YAQZAN
An Individual Path to Wisdom
A Disappointment with the Religious
'The Inward Light' in the West

WHY THEOLOGY MATTERS
How It All Began
Are Tyrants Predestined by God?
A Theology of Justice, Freedom & Reason
The Birth of Muslim Philosophy
The Fideist Counter-Attack
A Soldier-Like Obedience

ISLAM'S EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA
Divine Command and Human Reason
The Gap on Husn and Qubh
What Does the Qur'an Say?
Making Sense of Abraham's Knife
The Ash'arite Victory and Its Aftermath

HOW WE LOST MORALITY
A Case of Immoral Piety
Two Measures of Legitimacy
The Over-Inclusive World of Fatwas
The Shaky Grounds of Conscience
The Need For a Moral Revival

HOW WE LOST UNIVERSALISM
Two Views of Human Nature
Lessons of Slavery and Abolition
Human Rights vs Islamic Rights?
Islamist Strategies: Rejection, Apology & Instrumentalism

HOW THE SHARIA STAGNATED
Inheritance, Women and Justice
The Decline of R'ay
The Theory of Maqasid and Its Limits
A New Epistemology

HOW WE LOST THE SCIENCES
The First Cause and Other Causes
The Rise and Fall of Muslim Science
What is Geometry Good for?
Reason, Causality and Ottoman Reform
A Leap of Reason

THE LAST MAN STANDING: IBN RUSHD
The Religious Case for Philosophy
The Incoherence of Ash'arism
The Philosopher's Sharia
A Reasonable View on Jihad
A Progressive Take on Women
A Precursor to Free Speech
A Tragic Loss
The Jewish Secret

WHY WE LOST REASON, REALLY
Who Established the Establishment?
The 'Anarchy' of the Mu'tazila
'Political Science' of the Philosophers
Ibn Khaldun, States and Taxes
The Ash'ari Leniency to Despotism
The Divine Rights of Muslim Rulers
From Earthly Despots to Heavenly God

BACK TO MECCA
A Contextual Scripture
Dealing with Arab Patriarchy
An Interactive Scripture
What Islam Initially Asked for
The Shift in Medina
The Statization of Islam
The Abrogation of Mecca
The Uses and Abuses of Fitna

FREEDOM MATTERS I: HISBAH
How To Beat Slackers and Pour Wine
The Evolution of the Muhtasib
A Matter of 'Right and Wrong'
The Costs of Imposed Religion

FREEDOM MATTERS II: APOSTASY
Two Suspicious Hadiths
The Uses of Killing Apostates
Accepting the Golden Rule

FREEDOM MATTERS III: BLASPHEMY
How the Qur'an Counters Blasphemy
A Dead Poets Society?
No Compulsion in Religion - Seriously

THE THEOLOGY OF TOLERANCE
The Wisdom in 'Doubting and 'Postponing'
'Preachers, Not Judges'
The Myth of the 'Saved Sect'
Non-Muslims in Muslim Eyes
Who the Kafir Really Is
The Rings of Nathan the Wise

EPILOGUE