Asceticism and Poverty in the Qur'an

While the Qur'an approves of ascetic practices such as fasting and vigils, it does not insist on them. Nonetheless, Sloterdijk's You Must Change Your Life may help us to identify an ascetic "training program" within the Qur'an. This has as its main elements: hijra, in the sense of an ongoing attitude of separation and exile; jihad, in the sense of training for and engaging in combat, again as an ongoing attitude; and poverty, not in the sense of voluntarily undergoing deprivation, but of benefaction on a heroic scale recalling pre-Islamic Arabia. How do we contextualize this program and the Qur'anic environment in general? While the historical narratives about Muhammad and the early community have plenty to say about these elements, they do not adequately account for the way they appear in the Qur'an. We propose instead to use the chronological order of suras first proposed by Weil and Noldeke, not to establish chronology but to identify diverse communities of reception within the Qur'an, specifically with regard to poverty and generosity. The result is a simultaneous contrast and balance between values and practices based on reciprocity on the one hand, and requital/reward on the other. Asceticism thus has a central role in a uniquely Qur'anic system of economic and moral exchange.