Political Authority, the Marāsim of Muʿāwiyah, and the Construction of Religious Knowledge in Early Islam

Abdullah Syahir (Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta)
Alwi Hamid Bin Shahab (University of Seiyun, Yemen)

Refleksi: Jurnal Kajian Agama dan Filsafat
Vol. 25 No. 2 (2026)

This article examines the relationship between political authority and religious knowledge in early Islam through reports concerning four marāsim attributed to Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān. While previous studies have explored his political consolidation and the historical reliability of related reports, the interaction between these directives, the circulation of religious narratives, and the regulation of opposition requires closer examination. Using qualitative historical and textual analysis, the study critically compares accounts in historical, hadith, and biographical literature. It combines Ḥasan Farḥān al-Mālikī’s iʿādat al-naẓar, understood as a critical reconsideration of historical reports, with Michel Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge, discourse, and disciplinary power. Source criticism is employed to distinguish reported directives from subsequent interpretations, while Foucauldian analysis explores their possible political and epistemic functions without establishing their historical authenticity. The analysis suggests that reports about the marāsim portray interrelated efforts to privilege certain narratives, restrict opposing voices, and shape the conditions under which religious claims acquired authority. These findings do not establish that all attributed directives were implemented or that they directly caused hadith fabrication. Rather, the article shows how critically assessed historical reports can illuminate the contested relationship between political power and the circulation and legitimation of religious knowledge.