Disgust in early Islamic thought

the affects of hadith and moral aversion in pious traditions

Authors

  • Arafat A Razzaque University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.29511

Keywords:

disgust, morality, dietary laws, ḥadīth, piety, zuhd, gossip

Abstract

The relationship between morality and disgust has been a matter of considerable interest and debate in modern scholarship, while its salience in premodern religious history still deserves more attention. This article focuses on the role of disgust in medieval Muslim thought, identifying relevant notions in classical Arabic and examining their usage in traditionist sources from the first few 
centuries of Islam (seventh to tenth centuries ce). Hadith narratives illustrate the concept of taqadhdhur or revulsion to a disgusting object, especially in the context of food. Well-known accounts of the Prophet Muhammad’s aversion to an Arab custom of eating lizards raised questions about the normative implications of his disgust, which medieval jurists sought to resolve through interpretive debates on the category of khaba'ith (disgusting things) in dietary law. In contrast to the circumstantial role of disgust in law, appeals to disgust served as a rhetorical strategy for moral persuasion against sin in the literature of hadith, Qur'anic exegesis, and traditions associated with renunciant piety (zuhd). A paradigmatic case is the invocation of a particular motif, the rotting corpse (jifa), which is considered to be a core elicitor of disgust and was frequently used in early Islamic sources as a trope for the vice of gossip or backbiting (ghiba). The metaphor was elaborated through traditions centered on the sensory dimensions of disgust as a bodily phenomenon. Stories of pious Muslims suggest the  affective power of such traditions to inculcate revulsion toward sin. I argue that early Muslim pietists regarded disgust as a didactic instrument and a morally productive emotion.

Author Biography

  • Arafat A Razzaque, University of Toronto

    Arafat A. Razzaque is Assistant Professor of Islamic History in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto, Canada. His current research explores ideas about morality and 
    social etiquettes in the literature of early Islamic traditions. He is broadly interested in medieval Islamic social and cultural history, with a focus on religious and scholarly life in the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods. He obtained his PhD (2020) in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.

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Published

2025-01-13

How to Cite

Razzaque, A. A. (2025). Disgust in early Islamic thought: the affects of hadith and moral aversion in pious traditions. Body and Religion, 7(1), 114–140. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.29511