Fajr al-Islam (Ahmad Amin)

Fajr al-Islam ("The Dawn of Islam") is Ahmad Amin's book; its subtitle is "a study of intellectual life from early Islam to the end of the Umayyad state". ³ The first edition appeared around the beginning of 1929. In his preface to the second edition (January 1933) the author says it met with criticism and praise from Arab scholars and orientalists, among them Mustafa 'Abd al-Raziq, 'Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam, Bergsträsser, Schaade and Marçais. He adds that his work on Duha al-Islam kept him from expanding it. ¹

In his preface to the first edition (December 1928) Taha Husayn says the book belongs to a three-part project. Ahmad Amin took intellectual life, 'Abd al-Hamid al-'Abbadi political life, and Taha Husayn literary life; each read and approved the others' work, so that they stood "jointly behind the book in all its parts". ⁴ He describes Amin's method as analysing Arab intellectual life "with no less precision and thoroughness than the chemist's analysis in his laboratory", tracing it back to its pre-Islamic Arab, Persian, Jewish and Greek elements. ⁵

It has seven parts: ²

1. The Arabs before Islam: Arabia; the Arabs' contacts with their neighbours; "the nature of the Arab mind", setting the view of the Shu'ubiyya against those of al-Jahiz, Ibn Khaldun and O'Leary; and the expressions of intellectual life.
2. Islam: between the Jahiliyya and Islam, and the conquest and the mixing of peoples.
3. The Persians and their influence, including the influence of Persian literature on Arabic.
4. Greco-Roman influence: Christianity at the time of the conquest, Greek philosophy, and Greco-Roman literature.
5. Intellectual life and its centres.
6. The religious movement in detail: the Qur'an and its exegesis, hadith (its not being written down and its forgery), and law.
7. The religious sects: the Kharijites, the Shi'a, the Murji'a, the Qadariyya and the Mu'tazila.

• He defines hadith as what is reported from the Prophet ﷺ of word, deed or tacit approval, to which reports from the Companions were later added. He says its place in religion comes next to the Qur'an, since it explains the Qur'an's general, unqualified and broad statements. ⁶
• He holds that hadith was not written down in the Prophet's time as the Qur'an was. He cites the report in Muslim's Sahih forbidding writing, sets against it reports of written sheets such as the Conquest sermon written for Abu Shah and 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr's sheet, and notes some scholars' reconciliation: the prohibition was for fear of confusing hadith with the Qur'an. ⁷
• He notes some Companions' caution in narrating. 'Umar told Qaraza ibn Ka'b not to narrate much; Abu Bakr asked for a witness on the grandmother's inheritance; and 'Umar asked Abu Musa for proof of the report on asking permission to enter. ⁸
• He holds that because hadith was not written down and was carried by memory, "some allowed themselves to forge hadith". He says it is "most likely" that the report "whoever lies about me deliberately" was said on an occasion when a lie was told about the Prophet in his lifetime. ⁹

These are the author's views in his own terms. Sunni scholars wrote replies to him on questions of hadith; their replies have not yet been taken here from their sources.

The tenth edition (1969), Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi, Beirut, in the series "Ahmad Amin's Islamic Encyclopaedia"; the book was originally published by the Lajnat al-Ta'lif wa-al-Tarjama wa-al-Nashr. ^{10 11}