Christopher Melchert proposes to historicize Islamic renunciant
piety (zuhd). As the conquest period wound down in the early eighth
century c.e., renunciants set out to maintain the contempt of
worldly comfort and loyalty to a greater cause that had
characterized the community of Muslims in the seventh century.
Instead of reckless endangerment on the battlefield, they
cultivated intense fear of the Last Judgement to come. They spent
nights weeping, reciting the Qur'an, and performing supererogatory
ritual prayers. They stressed other-worldliness to the extent of
minimizing good works in this world. Then the decline of tribute
from the conquered peoples and conversion to Islam made it
increasingly unfeasible for most Muslims to keep up any such
regime. Professional differentiation also provoked increasing
criticism of austerity. Finally, in the later ninth century, a form
of Sufism emerged that would accommodate those willing and able to
spend most of their time on religious devotions, those willing and
able to spend their time on other religious pursuits such as law
and hadith, and those unwilling or unable to do either.
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