Tauba

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Tauba ( Arabic توبة) is a term from the religious vocabulary of Islam , which describes the repentant return of man to God , which is connected with a simultaneous turn of God to this person. The most important basis for the Islamic understanding of the Tauba are the statements in the Koran , in which the term itself as well as the associated verb tāba and the forms derived from it occur. Based on these statements and various hadiths , the Tauba concept has been further elaborated in Islamic piety literature, especially that of Sufi character. Here it is even more strongly connected than in the Koran with the idea of ​​man turning away from his sins.

Etymologically, the term tauba is related to the Hebrew word tešûbah (תשובה), which has roughly the same meaning in Judaism . It is based on the Hebrew word šūb ("turn, return, convert, turn"), which is one of the most common verbs in the Old Testament with well over 1000 references . In terms of content, the concept of the Tauba also shows the New Testament term metanoia (μετάνοια), which describes a reversal of thinking and is reproduced in the German language with the originally legal term of penance . An important difference to the concept of repentance is that the term tauba in Arabic is also related to God. People who give themselves completely to the Tauba are called Tauwābūn in Islam .

In the Koran

Tauba as a reversal of man

The term tauba and the associated verb tāba , which appear in late Meccan times and then appear particularly frequently in the Medinic passages of the Koran, are related to humans in most parts of the Koran. In the case of unbelievers who fought against Muslims, repentance is synonymous with conversion to Islam (e.g. Sura 19 : 60; Sura 25 : 70f). “Those who repented” ( man tāba ) is accordingly also used as a paraphrase for the Muslims who follow Mohammed (so sura 11 : 112). In other places, repentance expressed by the verb tāba is presented as the only alternative to death ( sura 5 : 34; 9: 3) or to punishment on the day of judgment (sura 11: 3; 28:67; 85:10) . Hellfire threatens even hypocrites who do not repent .-- Sura 4 : 145-6; 9:74. The same fate awaits the apostates who do not repent ( Sura 3 : 86-89).

God himself is described in sura 9, which bears the name at-Tauba , as the one who “ accepts repentance ( tauba ) from his servants” ( huwa yaqbalu t-taubata min ʿibādihi ; sura 9: 104; cf. also 42 : 25 and 40: 3). In sura 40 : 7 the angels ask God to forgive those who have turned back ( tābū ) and followed his way and to save them from the punishment of hell. On the other hand, the repentance of those “who disbelieved after believing and then became more and more disbeliever” should not be accepted. --Surah 3:90.

In many places, however, the invitation to the Tauba is not directed at unbelievers, but explicitly at the believers. Thus it says in sura 24 : 31 “And all repentant return to God ( wa-tūbū ilā Llāh ), you believers! Perhaps then you will be well! ”In sura 66: 8 God calls on the believers to a“ sincere repentance ”( tauba naṣūḥ ) and in return promises them entry into paradise. When referring to believers, the term tauba primarily describes the turning away from sin. The sin from which one should turn away can consist of slander (Sura 24: 4-5; 66: 3-4), mutual abuse ( Sura 49 : 11) or a violation of the prohibition of interest ( Sura 2 : 278f ). The tauba is especially important in the mature age. When a person is forty years old, he should say to God: "See, I turn to you repentant ( tubtu ilaika ) and I am one of those who have surrendered" ( Sura 46:15 ). But in itself man is constantly required to practice the tauba, because God loves the tauwābūn (cf. Sura 2: 222). The associated active participle tāʾibūn ("those who turn back ") also appears in a list of qualities that characterize the ideal Muslim (Sura 9: 112).

Tauba as God's turning towards people

In the Qur'an, the term tauba not only denotes a turn of man to God, but also, conversely, of God turns to man. For example, in Sura 4:92, the believer who accidentally killed another believer is asked to perform certain duties, such as: B. to pay the diya in order to gain God's tauba. In relation to God, the verb tāba denotes the renunciation of punishment (so sura 3: 128; 33:24) and the gracious turning to the believers, which stands in contrast to his tormenting of the hypocrites and unbelievers (e.g. sura 33 : 73). This type of divine tauba also plays an important role in two Koranic tales about the pre-Islamic period. For example, the story about Adam describes how God addressed words to Adam after the fall and turned to him again with grace ( tāba ʿalayhi ; sura 2:37). This thought of God's turning to Adam reappears in sura 20: 122, where it says that God chose Adam after his aberration, turned to him ( tāba ʿalai-hi ) and guided him. The story of Abraham and Ishmael tells how they pray to God and ask him to turn to them ( wa-tub ʿalaynā ; Sura 2: 128). The idea of ​​such a divine tauba is also related to the Prophet Mohammed himself in the Koran . Thus, in sura 9: 117 it is recalled that God graciously turned to the Prophet, the Muhādjirūn and the Ansār ( qad tāba ʿalā n-nabī wa-l-muhāǧirīn wa-l-anṣār ) after the hearts of a group almost strayed from them (Sura 9: 117). A difference in the usage of the verb tāba , which denotes the reciprocal turning of God and man, is that the turning of man to God is always connected with the preposition ilā , while God's turning to man is associated with the preposition ʿalā .

In several passages of the Koran it is expressed that God turns to man because he is tauwāb (Sura 2:37). This emphatic form, which is a synonym for Raḥmān , describes God's willingness to turn mercifully towards people. The term tauwāb still appears in various places in the Koran in relation to God, mostly in connection with people's request for forgiveness (e.g. Sura 4:64 and 110: 3) and the turning away from sins (e.g. B. Sura 49:12). That is why al-tauwāb is also considered one of the beautiful names of God .

The Correlation Between Divine and Human Tauba

In several places in the Qur'an it is expressed that there is a direct connection between divine turning to man and human turning to God. So it is explicitly stated in sura 5:39: "Who turns back after his wrongful act ( tāba ) and improves himself, also turns to God graciously again ( innā Llāha yatūbu ʿalaihi )." Conversely, in other passages it is expressed that divine Tauba can only be expected by those who turn to God themselves (so sura 4:17; 6:54; 16: 119). In the story of the Israelites and the Golden Calf , too , the thought figure of the interdependence of divine and human Tauba appears. So there the call is first directed to the Israelites that they may return to their Creator ( tūbū ilā bāriʾikum ), then it is said of God that he turned to them again ( fa-tāba ʿalaykum ) because he was the gracious Turning ( at-tauwāb ) and merciful ( ar-raḥīm ) be (sura 2:54). Conversely, those who postpone repentant repentance until death are deprived of the divine Tauba (Sura 4:18).

In most cases the human tauba precedes the divine one, only in one case it is the other way round. Thus it is said of God in sura 9: 118 that he “turned back to three men who had strayed, so that they might turn around” ( tāba ʿalaihim li-yatūbū ). The verse again closes with the statement that God is tauwāb , i.e. H. is willing to turn graciously to people again and again and to accept their repentant repentance (so also in Sura 4:16).

In the hadith

The tauba as a permanent human task

A Hadith , which in Saheeh al-Bukhari in the name Abu Hurairas is handed down, makes clear that Tauba is an ongoing task of the believer. Accordingly, Mohammed once said: "By God, more than seventy times a day I ask God for forgiveness and turn to him repentantly ( atūbu ilai-hi )." In the Sunan of Ibn Mājah , the Prophet is quoted as saying: "Who To repent from sin is like one who has no sin ”( at-tāʾib min aḏ-ḏanb ka-man lā ḏanba la-hū ). When Mohammed was asked about the mark for the tauba, he is said to have replied that this was repentance ( nadāma ).

The eschatological closure of the Tauba Gate

In Sura 6: 158 it says: "On the day that something comes from the signs of God, his faith is of no use to anyone who has not believed beforehand or has acquired good in his faith." The idea of ​​the "door of conversion" (bāb at-tauba) , which should close at the end of time , is linked to this word from the Koran . At-Tabarī in his Qur'an commentary in connection with Sura 6: 158 quotes different versions of a hadith, according to which this gate of conversion is in the west, is 60 days wide and will only close when the sun rises in the west. The sun should pass through the gate and then close immediately.

Further traditions about this gate can be found in the Qisas al- Anbiyāʾ work by ath-Thaʿlabī . There the following words are put into the mouth of the prophet Mohammed : "God has created a gate for the tauba behind the place of sunset, the door wing made of gold and adorned with pearls and precious stones. A fast rider rides forty from one door wing to the other For years. The gate is open from the creation of God until the morning of that night when the sun and moon rise from where they set. " Every tauba that a person showed, Mohammed explains further, entered through this gate and then ascended to God. After the moon and sun rise in the west, the angel Gabriel will close the gate tightly so that no one will accept the tauba.

In Sufik

Particularly in the Sufi milieu, the tauba was of great importance. The Iraqi Sufi Sahl at-Tustarī, for example, has the saying: "The tauba is a duty of every human being with every breath". Sahl is also supposed to have said that there is nothing that is more incumbent on people than the Tauba. While Sahl was of the opinion that people should never forget their own sin with the Tauba, Junaid took the view that the constant visualization of sins actually turns people away from God and that the Tauba must therefore include forgetting their own sins. Some Sufis such as ar-Ruwaim (st. 916) even went so far that they saw the Tauba principle as an obstacle on the way to God because of the fact that it brought their own sins to life. That is why they recommended that those who wanted to draw closer to God should “turn away from the Tauba” ( tauba min at-tauba ). The later mystic Abū Nasr as-Sarrādsch (d. 988) tried to overcome the dissent on the question of whether the tauba should include forgetting one's own sin by declaring that Sahl at-Tustarī meant the states of the murīden , Junaid, however, is the tauba of those who have already reached the truth ( al-muḥaqqiqūn ). The latter no longer thought of their sins "because the majesty of God and the everlasting remembrance of God rule their hearts".

One of the Sufis who discussed the tauba most systematically was Abū Tālib al-Makkī (st. 996). In his work "Food of the Hearts" ( Qūt al-qulūb ) he described it as the first of the nine "Stations of Certainty" ( maqāmāt al-yaqīn ). The stations that follow the Tauba are, according to him, patience ( ṣabr ), gratitude ( šukr ), hope ( raǧāʾ ), fear ( ḫauf ), renunciation ( zuhd ), trust in God ( tawakkul ), contentment ( riḍā ) and love ( maḥabba ). Al-Makkī names a total of ten prerequisites for tauba to occur: (1) the repentant must not repeat the sin, (2) must try to avoid repetition, (3) turn from sin to God, (4) Feeling repentance ( nadam ), (5) vowing sincerity in obedience ( al-istiqāma ilā ṭ-ṭāʿa ) for the rest of one's life , (6) fearing punishment, (7) placing one's hope in divine grace, (8 ) acknowledge his sin, (9) acknowledge that God predetermined sin for him without prejudice to divine justice, and (10) perform penance ( kaffāra ) for his wrongdoing .

Abū Tālib al-Makkī, however, knows a second, higher level of the tauba, which he describes with the Koranic expression of tauba naṣūḥ from Sura 66: 8. Only when a person reaches this stage of tauba does he become a tauwāb, an attribute that then connects him with God. The tauba naṣūḥ has its own requirements. This includes that after man (1) has turned away from sin itself, (2) no longer speaks of it, (3) no longer speaks of things that cause sin, (4) things that cause sin are similar, no longer mentioned, (5) no longer thinks of what is left of it, (6) does not listen to people who speak of it, (7) gives up all pursuit of sin, (8) does not think of the inadequacies thinks of his tauba and (9) his search for God, and (10) is never satisfied with his tauba. Al-Makkī explains the latter point with the fact that the Tauba never comes to an end with the God -Knower ( lā nihāya li-taubat al-ʿārif ). With this teaching of a second level of the Tauba, al-Makkī partly ties in with the idea of ​​al-Jnunaids, according to which it is necessary to forget one's own sins at a certain point. Many of al-Makkī's ideas were later taken up by al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), who dedicated a book of his own to the Tauba in his comprehensive work Iḥyāʾ „ulūm ad-dīn ("Revitalization of the Science of Religion").

The Persian Sufi Hudschwīrī (d. 1077) also dealt extensively with the tauba . Similar to al-Makkī, the tauba is the first station ( maqām ) of those who tread the path of truth ( sālikīn-i ṭarīq-i ḥaqq ). Overall, however, his Tauba teaching is easier. In his opinion, sincere tauba is already given if it contains three elements: 1.) regret about the offense ( asaf bar muḫālafat ); 2.) Failure to make the mistake ( tark-i zallat ); 3.) the decision not to commit the act again ( ʿazm-i nākardan ba-muʿāwadat ). Huǧwīrī also related the principle of the tauba to the other two Koranic concepts of repentant repentance ( ināba and auba ) by establishing a hierarchy between them. Tauba denotes the turning away from the great sins and is the station of the mass of believers, ināba denotes the turning away from the small sins and is the station of friends of God and those close to God ( muqarrabūn ), finally auba is the turning away from one's own self God is the station of the prophets and messengers of God.

From the 11th century onwards, many Hanbali scholars studied the tauba, for example soAbdallāh al-Ansārī in his mystical work Manāzil as-sāʾirīn . The Hanbali scholar Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī (d. 1223) wrote a Kitāb al-Tauwābīn in which he compiled stories about well-known Tauwābūn. The Hanbali scholar Ibn Qaiyim al-Dschauzīya (d. 1350), who wrote a detailed commentary on al-Ansārī's work Manāzil as-sāʾirīn , rejected the seemingly paradoxical idea of ​​a "turning away from turning away" ( tauba min at-tauba ) and believed that at most a turning away from the “deficiency of the tauba” ( nuqṣān at-tauba ) could be meant.

In Islamic law

Tauba is relevant in Islamic criminal law insofar as it exempts from punishment in some offenses that only concern the so-called “rights of God” ( ḥuqūq Allaah ). The classic case is apostasy . With the tauba, which has to take place within three days, the delinquent proves that he has already changed his attitude and no longer needs punishment. The only exception is for apostasy, which is associated with an abuse of the Prophet ( sabb an-nabī ). On the basis of Koranic statements (Sura 5: 33-34), the Tauba also exempts from punishment during street robbery. The tauba is only accepted here if it takes place before the mugger is arrested. The Malikite school of law also ties the exemption from punishment to the fact that the mugger presents himself to the authorities.

The Ibadites the Tauba plays an important role in the Imamatslehre . An imam who has committed a great sin must be asked to practice the tauba. If he is not ready for this, the believers have a duty to turn away from him in the spirit of the Barā'a . The text of a public Tauba declaration by Rāšid ibn ʿAlī, who was Imam of Rustāq in the 11th century, has survived in Ibadite literature . The Muʿtazilites assumed that not only rulers but also government officials would have to undergo a Tauba trial in the event of misconduct.

literature

Arabic and Persian sources
Secondary literature
  • SL de Beaurecueil: “Le retour à Dieu (tawba): element essential de la conversion selon ʿAbdallah Ansari et ses commentateurs” in Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Études Orientales du Caire 6 (1959–61) 55-122.
  • FM Denny: Art. "Tawba" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. X, p. 385.
  • Syed Mu'aẓẓam Ḥusain: “Effect of Tauba (Repentance) on penalty in Islam” in Islamic Studies 8 (1969) 189-198.
  • Atif Khalil: “Ibn al-Arabi on the three conditions of Tawba” in Islam and Christian-Muslim relations 17 (2006) pp. 403-416.
  • Atif Khalil: “Tawba in the Sufi Psychology of Abū Ṭālib Al-Makkī (d. 996)” in Journal of Islamic Studies (2012) 294-325.
  • Maurice A. Pomerantz: “Muʿtazili theory in practice: the repentance ( tawba ) of government officials in the 4th / 10th. century ”in Camilla Adang; Sabine Schmidtke; David Sklare (ed.): A common rationality: muʿtazilism in Islam and Judaism . Ergon-Verlag, Würzburg, 2007, pp. 463-493.
  • Uri Rubin: "Repentance and Penance" in Jane Dammen McAuliffe (ed.): Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an . 6 vols. Leiden 2001-2006. Vol. IV, pp. 426-30.
  • Susanne Wilzer: “Investigations on Ġazzālīs Kitāb at-Tauba” in Der Islam 32 (1957) 237-309 and 33 (1957) 51-120.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Wilzer 72.
  2. ↑ See Arthur Jeffery: The foreign vocabulary of the Qur'an. Oriental Institute, Baroda 1938. S. 87 and K. Ahrens in Zeitschrift der Morgenländische Gesellschaft 84 (1930) 27 digitized
  3. ↑ See Peter Welten: Art. “Penance. II. Old Testament ”in Theologische Realenzyklopädie Vol. VII, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1981. p. 433.
  4. ↑ See Wilzer 72 and Rubin 296.
  5. ↑ See Rubin: "Repentance and Penance" in EQ , p. 426.
  6. ↑ Cf. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Buḫārī No. 5948.
  7. ↑ See Sunan Ibn Māǧa No. 4250.
  8. ↑ Cf. al-Qušairī: ar-Risāla fī t-taṣauwuf . 1989, p. 146.
  9. ↑ Cf. aṭ-Ṭabarī: Ǧāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-qurʾān . Ed. Maḥmūd and Aḥmad Muḥammad Šākir. Maktabat Ibn Taimīya, Cairo, undated, Vol. XII, pp. 250-255, No. 14207, 14208, 14216, 14218. Digitized .
  10. ↑ Abū Isḥāq aṯ-Ṯaʿlabī : Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ au ʿArāʾis al-maǧālis . Maṭbaʿ al-Ḥaidar, Bombay, 1295/1878. P. 33f. Digitized . - German transl. Heribert Busse under the title Islamic Tales of Prophets and Men of God. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006. pp. 30f.
  11. ↑ See Gerhard Böwering: Art. "Sahl al-Tustarī" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VIII, pp. 840a-841b. Here p. 841a.
  12. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 301.
  13. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 321f.
  14. ↑ Cf. al-Qušairī 151.
  15. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 297.
  16. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 303.
  17. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 318f.
  18. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 320.
  19. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 320f.
  20. ↑ See Wilzer, referring to al-Makkī there, p. 290.
  21. ↑ See Hu diewīri 294.
  22. ↑ Cf. Huǧwīrī 294.
  23. ↑ Cf. Huǧwīrī 295.
  24. ↑ See the article by Beaurecueil.
  25. ↑ The work was edited by George Makdisi in 1961 and published by the Institut Français de Damas.
  26. ↑ See Khalil 2012, 323.
  27. ↑ See Rudolph Peters: Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law. Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005. pp. 27f.
  28. ↑ See John C. Wilkinson: The Imamate Tradition in Oman. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987, 163, 175f.
  29. ↑ As-Siyar wa-l-ǧawābāt li-ʿulamāʾ wa-aʾimmat ʿUmān. Ed. Saiyida Ismāʿīl Kāšif. Vol. I. Wizārat at-Turāṯ al-Qaumī wa-ṯ-ṯaqāfa, Muscat, 1986.
  30. ↑ See on this Pomerantz.