‘Fitna’ in the Context of the Syrian Revolution: The Example of al-Būṭī

Abstract

‘Fitna’ in the Context of the Syrian Revolution: The Example of al-Būṭī Bachar Bakour (bio) Introduction The popular uprisings in Syria in 2011 have emphasized the centrality of religion in social and political spheres. As Friday sermons would be a fitting opportunity for gathering, numerous mosques served as a platform for anti-regime demonstrations.1 Measures, mostly repressive, were taken by the security forces to foil or break up any demonstration launching from mosques.2 Senior Syrian Sheikhs,3 key figures in understanding the conflict/war dynamics, took different attitudes towards protests. Influential scholars, like Kurayyim Rājiḥ, Sāriyah and Usāmah al-Rifā‘ī, Mu‘ādh al-Khaṭīb, and Abū al-Hudā al-Ya‘qūbī, vocally criticised the government’s bloody policy and sided with the protests. Other ulama condemned demonstrations and propagated the official narrative.4 A third party, confused or apprehensive, preferred the culture of quiescence and silence. The escalating protests have taken ulama vs. the regime into uncharted territory. [End Page 25] Muhammad ‘Abd al-Sattār al-Sayyed and Aḥmad Ḥassūn, the Minister of Syrian Endowments and the Grand Mufti of Syria respectively, described the popular unrest erupting into revolution as ‘foreign conspiracy’ inspired by scholars of the fitna (referring mainly to al-Qaraḍāwī) in addition to satellite channels of the fitna, i.e., Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya.5 At an unofficial level, Sheikh Muhammad Sa‘īd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī, a leading Muslim thinker, refused to endorse the protests based on a broader interpretation that they might lead to chaos, and unrest causing substantial collateral damage and bloodshed among innocent Muslims and non-Muslims of Syria.6 Up to his assassination in 2013,7 al-Būṭī already developed an argument about the fitna against the backdrop of traumatic events in Syria, (causes, consequences, and remedies). With his influential position as a religious authority, al-Būṭīs view on the fitna has been echoed by a multitude of Syrian ulama and Sharī‘ah students.8 This article aims to examine al-Būṭī’s treatment of the fitna in the context of the Syrian revolution by attempting to address the following questions: given its multiple meanings, what does fitna signify in the revolutionary context? What is al-Būṭī’s attitude towards the fitna in Syria, and is it grounded in a balanced approach that does not reflect favouritism? How should the fitna be treated from a holistic point of view? Sources include (i) al-Būṭī’s books, Friday sermons, videos, and fatwas9 as well as other traditional and modern writings that provide a broader perspective of the fitna and (ii) research books, dissertations, and journal articles focusing the Syrian revolution. Textual and content data analysis is employed to position al-Būṭī’s argument on fitna within a wider Islamic [End Page 26] framework of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and the opinions of leading classical and contemporary scholars. This is to re-situate the issue of the fitna in its proper context within the rights and duties of both the ruler and the ruled. Further, the article showcases the fitna’s overlapping meanings via a linguistic review of a chapter named ‘the Book of al-Fitan’,10 of the five well-known collections of ḥadīth. The reason is that the vast majority of the quoted ḥadīths that speak about and warn of the eruption of the fitna are stated in that chapter. This review is warranted by the fact that post-revolution pronouncements such as ‘armed rebellion leads to the fitna’, ‘if you say so and so, you will create the fitna’, ‘if you stay at home and mind your own business, you avoid involvement in the fitna’ etc. are left without clear and accurate definition. For this research, key concepts and terms are defined and clarified. The word fitna means ‘to burn’, i.e., to melt gold or silver with fire to purify it.11 Then this signification is extended to mean “To put to the test, to afflict (in particular as a means of testing someone’s endurance); to disrupt the peace of a community; to tempt, to seduce, to allure, to infatuate.”12 Thus...