The Role of the Early Islam's Political Events in Initiating the First Theological Debates: A Case Study of Saqifeh and Seffin War)

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

One can say that understanding the political thought of Muslims in early Islam depends, on the one hand, on the study of the socio-political events of that time, and on the other, requires understanding of their conceptions of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah teachings. Thus to understand the political thoughts of this period, one has to put the Muslim conceptions of the texts in their socio-political context. In order to do this, it is important in our view to understand the debates regarding these events and how they have been judged referring to the religious texts. These debates, which were theological, formed different conceptions of religious texts. Studying two important events at that time- the Saqifeh and Seffin war- this article explains how the early theological debates were formed and consequently influenced the Muslim political thoughts of that time.

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