| This is a study in comparative religious ethics that uncovers and examines an early Muslim account of the nature of religious subjectivity and technologies of ethical formation. It critically reconstructs and analyzes how the influential early Muslim moral pedagogue, theologian and ascetic, al-H&dotbelow;arith b. Asad al-Muh&dotbelow;asibi (d. 143/857), elaborates the ideal religious subject and its proper religious and moral formation. Each chapter of the dissertation interrogates one particular discursive layer of al-Muh&dotbelow;asibi's teachings in his major work, al-Ri'aya li-h&dotbelow;uquq Allah, with a view to examining the nature and formation of the religious subject as it is formed and transformed through its engagement in that particular discourse. The dissertation thus examines the Muh&dotbelow;asibian religious subject through four discursive windows, so to speak: i) theological discourses about God's predetermination and His reward and punishment, ii) practices of mutual counseling (nas&dotbelow;ih&dotbelow;a ) and admonition (wa'z&dotbelow;), ideal responses to the praise and reproach of others and discourses peculiar to an inter-subjective context more broadly iii) legal-theological discourses, particularly what I call the categories of act analysis or ah&dotbelow;kam discourse and iv) discourses about religious and moral vices that threaten and invalidate proper subjection to God. Throughout, the study interrogates al-Muh&dotbelow;asibi's teachings using insights drawn from the study of ethical formation in other religious and philosophical contexts. In conclusion, this study discusses how attention to Muh&dotbelow;asibian religious subjectivity might enrich and complicate contemporary discussions of religious tolerance and religious pluralism in the American academy. This study builds on, and also pushes at, the boundaries of current interpretations of mystical, theological and legal discourses in the academic study of Islam as well as Muslim ethics. As well, it generates important questions and insights that speak to ethical issues, such as moral subjectivity, ethical formation and religious tolerance, which are of growing interest to comparative religious ethicists. |
