Exaggerated fear in the early Islamic Renunciant Tradition

Abstract

AbstractThe Sunni tradition of the ninth and tenth centuries often reports Muslims from the seventh and eighth centuries so fearful of God and the Last Judgement that they wished they had never been born, wept uncontrollably, and otherwise carried on as we seldom hear of from later centuries. My first object is therefore to make out what these fearers were up to. To look forward, I would characterise the piety on display as being intenselyascetical. It is about insecurity and divine transcendence, not trust and nearness to God. The fearers seem to have cultivated anxiousness to maintain their devotion and prevent complacency. My second object is to make out why such exaggerated fear evidently faded away in the later eighth century. I tend to think that fear had to be moderated with the development of Sunni theology in the ninth century, which made it necessary to stress the prospect of salvation for all Muslims, and of a Sunni piety that eschewed extreme practices unsuitable for everyone to undertake.