Islamic modernism

Islamic modernism is a movement that has been described as "the first Muslim ideological response to the Western cultural challenge," attempting to reconcile the Islamic faith with modern values such as democracy, civil rights, rationality, equality, and progress. It featured a "critical reexamination of the classical conceptions and methods of jurisprudence", and a new approach to Islamic theology and Quranic exegesis (Tafsir). A contemporary definition describes it as an "effort to re-read Islam's fundamental sources—the Qur'an and the Sunna, (the practice of the Prophet)—by placing them in their historical context, and then reinterpreting them, non-literally, in the light of the modern context."
It was one of several Islamic movements—including Islamic secularism, Islamism, and Salafism—that emerged in the middle of the 19th century in reaction to the rapid changes of the time, especially the perceived onslaught of Western civilization and colonialism on the Muslim world. Islamic modernism differs from secularism in that it insists on the importance of religious faith in public life, and from Salafism or Islamism in that it embraces contemporary European institutions, social processes, and values. One expression of Islamic modernism, formulated by Mahathir Mohammed, is that "only when Islam is interpreted so as to be relevant in a world which is different from what it was 1400 years ago, can Islam be regarded as a religion for all ages."
Prominent leaders of the movement include Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Namik Kemal, Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Muhammad Abduh (former Sheikh of Al-Azhar University), Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani and South Asian poet Muhammad Iqbal. In the Indian subcontinent, the movement is also known as Farahi, and is mainly regarded as the school of thought named after Hamiduddin Farahi.
Since its inception, Islamic modernism has suffered from co-option of its original reformism by both secularist rulers and by "the official ulama" whose "task it is to legitimise" rulers' actions in religious terms.
Themes, arguments and positions
Some themes in modern Islamic thought include:
The acknowledgement "with varying degrees of criticism or emulation", of the technological, scientific and legal achievements of the West; while at the same time objecting "to Western colonial exploitation of Muslim countries and the imposition of Western secular values" and aiming to develop a modern and dynamic understanding of science among Muslims that would strengthen the Muslim world and prevent further exploitation.
After traveling to Europe in the late 19th century, Muhammad Abduh came back so impressed with the order and prosperity he saw, he told Egyptians: "I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but no Islam."
Sayyid Ahmed Khan was said to have not only admired the accomplishments of Britain but to have had an "emotional attachment" to the country.
Beliefs
Syed Ahmad Khan sought to harmonize scripture with modern knowledge of natural science; to bridge "the gap between science and religious truth" by "abandoning literal interpretations" of scripture, and questioning the methodology of the collectors of sahih hadith, i.e. questioning whether what are thought to be some of the most accurately passed down narrations of what the Prophet said and did, are actually divinely revealed.
Some non-literal interpretations Ahmed Khan came to were that:
Angels are not beings created from light but "'properties' of things or conceptionalizations of the divine moral support which encourages man in his endeavors.
Jinn are not beings with free will created from fire, but "projections of evil desires".
Islamic law
Cheragh Ali and Syed Ahmad Khan argued that "the Islamic code of law is not unalterable and unchangeable", and instead could be adopted "to the social and political revolutions going on around it".
"Objectives" of Islamic law (maqasid al-sharia) in support of "public interest", (or maslahah, a secondary source for Islamic jurisprudence) were invoked. This was done by Islamic reformists in "many parts of the globe to justify initiatives not addressed in classical commentaries but regarded as of urgent political and ethical concern."
Traditional Islamic law was reinterpreted using the four traditional sources of Islamic jurisprudence – the holy book of Islam (Quran), the reported deeds and sayings of Muhammad (hadith), consensus of the theologians (ijma) and juristic reasoning by analogy (qiyas), plus another source -- independent reasoning to find a solution to a legal question '('ijtihad).
the first two sources (the Quran and hadith) were taken and reinterpreted "to transform the last two (ijma and qiyas) in order to formulate a reformist project in light of the prevailing standards of scientific rationality and modern social theory."
traditional Islamic law was restricted by limiting its basis to the Quran and authentic Sunnah, i.e. limiting the Sunna with radical hadith criticism.
ijtihad was employed not to only in the traditional, narrow way to arrive at legal rulings in unprecedented cases, i.e. where Quran, hadith, and rulings of earlier jurists are silent, but for critical independent reasoning in all domains of thought, and perhaps even approving of its use by non-jurists.
These more or less radical (re)interpretations of the authoritative sources applied particularly to cases of Quranic verses or hadith where literal interpretations conflicts with "modern" views: polygyny, the hadd (penal) punishments (chopping off hands, administering lashes, etc.), treatment of unbelievers, waging of jihad, banning of usury or interest on loans (riba).
On the topic of Jihad, Islamic scholars like Ibn al-Amir al-San'ani, Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, Ubaidullah Sindhi, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Shibli Nomani, etc. distinguished between defensive Jihad (Jihad al-daf) and offensive Jihad (Jihad al-talab or Jihad of choice). They refuted the notion of consensus on Jihad al-talab being a communal obligation (fard kifaya). In support of this view, these scholars referred to the works of classical scholars such as Al-Jassas, Ibn Taymiyya, etc. According to Ibn Taymiyya, the reason for Jihad against non-Muslims is not their disbelief, but the threat they pose to Muslims. Citing Ibn Taymiyya, scholars like Rashid Rida, Al San'ani, Qaradawi, etc. argues that unbelievers need not be fought unless they pose a threat to Muslims. Thus, Jihad is obligatory only as a defensive warfare to respond to aggression or "perfidy" against the Muslim community, and that the "normal and desired state" between Islamic and non-Islamic territories was one of "peaceful coexistence." Similarly the 18th-century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab defined Jihad as a defensive military action to protect the Muslim community, and emphasized its defensive aspect in synchrony with later 20th century Islamic writers. According to Mahmud Shaltut and other modernists, unbelief was not sufficient cause for declaring jihad. The conversion to Islam by unbelievers in fear of death at the hands of jihadists (mujahideen) was unlikely to prove sincere or lasting. Much preferable means of conversion was education. They pointed to the verse "No compulsion is there in religion".
On the topic of riba (usury), Syed Ahmad Khan, Fazlur Rahman Malik, Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri, Muhammad Asad, Mahmoud Shaltout all took issue with the jurist orthodoxy that any and all interest was riba and forbidden, believing that there was a difference between interest and usury. These jurists took precedent for their position from the classical scholar Ibn Taymiyya who argued in his treatise "The Removal of Blames from the Great Imams", that scholars are divided on the prohibition of riba al-fadl. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, the student of Ibn Taymiyya, also distinguished between riba al-nasi'ah and riba al-fadl, maintaining that only riba al-nasi'ah was prohibited by Qur'an and Sunnah definitively while the latter was only prohibited in order to stop the charging of interest. According to him, the prohibition of riba al-fadl was less severe and it could be allowed in dire need or greater public interest (maslaha). Hence under a compelling need, an item may be sold with delay in return for dirhams or for another weighed substance despite implicating riba al-nasi'ah.
Concerning Hudud/hadd, specifically the cutting off the hand of the thief, the "classic modernist argument" is that it should be applied only in a "perfectly just" Islamic society where "there is no want", i.e. where no one steals anything because they need it and can't afford it.
Apologetics
Apologetic writing linked aspects of the Islamic tradition with Western ideas and practices, and claimed Western practices in question were originally derived from Islam. Islamic apologetics has been severely criticized by many scholars as superficial, tendentious and even psychologically destructive, so much so that the term "apologetics" has almost become a term of abuse in the literature on modern Islam.
History of Modernism
Origins
During the second half of the 19th century, according to Henri Lauzière, numerous Muslim reformers began efforts to reconcile Islamic values with the social and intellectual ideas of the Age of Enlightenment by purging (alleged) alterations from Islam and adhering to the basic tenets revealed to Muhammad and held during the Rashidun era Their movement is regarded as the precursor to Islamic Modernism.
Ottoman Tanzimat
Islamic modernist discourse emerged as an intellectual movement in the second quarter of nineteenth century; during an era of wide-ranging reforms initiated across the Ottoman empire known as the Tanzimat (1839–1876 C.E). The movement sought to harmonise classical Islamic theological concepts with liberal constitutional ideas and advocated the reformulation of religious values in light of drastic social, political and technological changes. Intellectuals like Namik Kemal (1840–1888 C.E) called for popular sovereignty and "natural rights" of citizens. Major scholarly figures of this movement included the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Hassan al-Attar (d. 1835), Ottoman Vizier Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha (d. 1871), South Asian philosopher Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898), Jamal al-Din Afghani (d. 1897), etc. Inspired by their understanding of classical Islamic thought, these rationalist scholars regarded Islam as a religion compatible with Western philosophy and modern science.
At least one branch of Islamic Modernism began as an intellectual movement during the Tanzimat era and was part of the Ottoman constitutional movement and newly emerging patriotic trends of Ottomanism during the mid-19th century. It advocated for novel redefinitions of Ottoman imperial structure, bureaucratic reforms, implementing liberal constitution, centralisation, parliamentary system and was supportive of the Young Ottoman movement. Although modernist activists agreed with the conservative Ottoman clergy in emphasising the Muslim character of the empire, they also had fierce disputes with them. While the Ottoman clerical establishment called for Muslim unity through the preservation of the dynastic authority and unquestionable allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan; modernist intellectuals argued that imperial unity was better served through parliamentary reforms and enshrining equal treatment of all Ottoman subjects; Muslim and non-Muslim. The modernist elites frequently invoked religious slogans to gain support for cultural and educational efforts as well as their political efforts to unite the Ottoman empire under a secular constitutional order.
On the other hand, Salafiyya movement emerged as an independent revivalist trend in Syria amongst the scholarly circles of scripture-oriented Damascene ulema during the 1890s. Although Salafis shared many of the socio-political grievances of the modernist activists, they held different objectives from both the modernist and the wider constitutionalist movements. While the Salafis opposed the autocratic policies of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the Ottoman clergy; they also intensely denounced the secularising and centralising tendencies of Tanzimat reforms brought forth by the Constitutionalist activists, accusing them of emulating Europeans.
Spread
Eventually the modernist intellectuals formed a secret society known as Ittıfak-ı Hamiyet (Patriotic Alliance) in 1865; which advocated political liberalism and modern constitutionalist ideals of popular sovereignty through religious discourse. During this era, numerous intellectuals and social activists like Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938 C.E), Egyptian Nahda figure Rifaa al-Tahtawi (1801-1873), etc. introduced Western ideological themes and ethical notions into local Muslim communities and religious seminaries.
India
Away from the Ottoman Empire in British India Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) was "the first of the modernist thinkers to have a substantial impact upon the Muslim world at large. He founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh with the intent of producing "an educated elite of Muslims able to compete successfully with Hindus for jobs in the Indian administration". The college provided both training in the "European arts and sciences" and "traditional Islamic studies". He sought to "reconcile the contradictions between Islam as traditionally understood and the modern sciences he so much admired."
Egypt
The theological views of the Azharite scholar Muhammad 'Abduh (d. 1905) were greatly shaped by the 19th century Ottoman intellectual discourse. Similar to the early Ottoman modernists, Abduh tried to bridge the gap between Enlightenment ideals and traditional religious values. He believed that classical Islamic theology was intellectually vigorous and portrayed Kalam (speculative theology) as a logical methodology that demonstrated the rational spirit and vitality of Islam. Key themes of modernists would eventually be adopted by the Ottoman clerical elite who underpinned liberty as a basic Islamic principle. Portraying Islam as a religion that exemplified national development, human societal progress and evolution; Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam Musa Kazim Efendi (d. 1920) wrote in his article "Islam and Progress" published in 1904:"the religion of Islam is not an obstacle to progress. On the contrary, it is that which commands and encourages progress; it is the very reason for progress itself"
Commencing in the late nineteenth century and impacting the twentieth-century, Muhammed Abduh and his followers undertook an educational and social project to defend, modernize and revitalize Islam to match Western institutions and social processes. Its most prominent intellectual founder, Muhammad Abduh (d. 1323 AH/1905 CE), was Sheikh of Al-Azhar University for a brief period before his death. This project superimposed the world of the nineteenth century on the extensive body of Islamic knowledge that had accumulated in a different milieu.
These efforts had little impact at first. After Abduh's death, his movement was catalysed by the demise of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 and promotion of secular liberalism – particularly with a new breed of writers being pushed to the fore including Egyptian Ali Abd al-Raziq's publication attacking Islamic politics for the first time in Muslim history. Subsequent secular writers of this trend including Farag Foda, al-Ashmawi, Muhamed Khalafallah, Taha Husayn, Husayn Amin, et al., have argued in similar tones.
Abduh was skeptical towards many Hadith (or "Traditions"), i.e. towards the body of reports of the teachings, doings, and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Particularly towards those Traditions that are reported through few chains of transmission, even if they are deemed rigorously authenticated in any of the six canonical books of Hadith (known as the Kutub al-Sittah). Furthermore, he advocated a reassessment of traditional assumptions even in Hadith studies, though he did not devise a systematic methodology before his death.
Ibn Ashur's Maqasid al-Sharia
Tunisian Maliki scholar Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur (1879-1973 C.E) who rose to the position of chief judge at Zaytuna university was a major student of Muhammad 'Abduh. He met 'Abduh in 1903 during his visit to Tunisia and thereafter became a passionate advocate of 'Abduh's modernist vision. He called for a revamping of the educational curriculum and became noteworthy for his role in revitalising the discourse of Maqasid al-Sharia (Higher Objectives of Islamic Law) in scholarly and intellectual ciricles. Ibn Ashur authored the book "Maqasid al-Shari'ah al-Islamiyyah" in 1946 which was widely accepted by modernist intellectuals and writers. In his treatise, Ibn Ashur called for a legal theory that is flexible towards 'urf (local customs) and adopted contextualised approach towards re-interpretation of hadiths based on applying the principle of Maqasid (objectives).
Decline
After its peak during the early 20th century, the modernist movement would gradually decline after the Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s and eventually lost ground to conservative reform movements such as Salafism. Following the First World War, Western colonialism of Muslim lands and the advancement of secularist trends; Islamic reformers felt betrayed by the Arab nationalists and underwent a crisis.
Islamism
This schism was epitomised by the ideological transformation of Sayyid Rashid Rida, a pupil of 'Abduh, who began to resuscitate the treatises of Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyyah and became the "forerunner of Islamist thought" by popularising his ideals. Unlike 'Abduh and Afghani, Rida and his disciples susbcribed to the Hanbali theology. They would openly campaign against adherents of other schools, like the Shi'ites, who they considered deviant. Rida transformed the Reformation into a puritanical movement that advanced Muslim identitarianism, pan-Islamism and preached the superiority of Islamic culture while attacking Westernisation. One of the major hallmarks of Rida's movement was his advocacy of a theological doctrine that obligated the establishment of an Islamic state led by the Ulema (Islamic scholars).
Rida's fundamentalist/Islamist doctrines would later be adopted by Islamic scholars and Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the German scholar Bassam Tibi: "Rida's Islamic fundamentalism has been taken up by the Muslim Brethren, a right wing radical movement founded in 1928, which has ever since been in inexorable opposition to secular nationalism."
Contemporary Era
Contemporary Muslim modernism is characterised by its emphasis on the doctrine of "Maqasid al-sharia" to navigate the currents of modernity and address issues related to international human rights. Another aspect is its promotion of Fiqh al-Aqalliyat (minority jurisprudence) during the late 20th century to answer the challenges facing the growing Muslim minority populations in the West. Islamic scholar Abdullah Bin Bayyah, professor of Islamic studies at King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah, is one of the major proponents of Fiqh al-Aqalliyat and advocates remodelling the legal system based on the principles of Maqasid al-Sharia to suit the sensitivities of the modern era.
Influence on Revivalist movements
Salafiyya Movement
Origins
The modernist movement led by Jamal Al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad 'Abduh, Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur, Syed Ahmad Khan and, to a lesser extent, Mohammed al-Ghazali; shared some of the ideals of the conservative revivalist Wahhabi movement, such as endeavoring to "return" to the Islamic understanding of the first Muslim generations (Salaf) by reopening the doors of juristic deduction (ijtihad) that they saw as closed.
The connection between modernists and Salafists is disputed, with various academics asserting there never really was one.Dillon, Michael R (p. 33)Historical Development of the Methodologies of al-Ikhwaan al-Muslimeen And Their Effect and Influence Upon Contemporary Salafee Dawah salafipublications.com There are those scholars maintain that they used to share the "salafi" designation, but nothing else (Oxford Bibliographies, Quintan Wiktorowicz); or that Modernists "al-Afghani and Abduh were hardly Salafis to begin with" (Henri Lauziere); or contrary to that, call Al-Afghani, Abduh and Rida founders of Salafiyya and go on to describe their creation without ever mentioning Modernism (Olivier Roy).
Those that believe they did have the same ancestors (a view propagated in early 20th century by French Orientalist Louis Massignon), don't always agree on what happened:
Salafists starting out on the side of "enlightenment and modernity" and "inexplicably" turned against these virtues and to puritanism (World News Research); or the term "salafist" was coined by Rashid Rida but was appropriated by one Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, so that the world now associates it with al-Albani and his disciples; but not with Rida his movement (Ammaar Yasir Qadhi); or that it was Muhammad ʿAbduh and Rida who established "enlightened Salafiyya" (Modernism) and it was Rashid Rida (no mention of al-Albani) who incrementally transformed it into the Wahhabi-friendly salafiyya we know today (Raihan Ismail). In any case, it is generally agreed that in the early 21st century, conservative Salafi Muslims see their movement as understanding "the injunctions of the sacred texts in their most literal traditional sense", looking up to Ibn Taymiyya rather than 19th century Reformers.
Olivier Roy describes the characteristics of the 19th century movement of Al-Afghani, Abduh, etc. as rejection of cultural themes (adat, urf), rejection of maraboutism (belief in the powers of intervention of those blessed with divine charisma, or baraka), and opposition to rapprochement with other religions. These were standard fundamentalist reformist doctrines. Where Salafists were different was in their rejection of the tradition of the ulama (Islamic clergy), the ulama's "body of additions and extensions" to the Sunnah and Quran: the tafsir commentary on the Quran, the four legal schools of madhahib, philosophy, culture, etc. Salafiyya were traditional in their politics or lack thereof, and unlike later Islamists "made no wholesale condemnations of existing Muslim governments". Issues of governance they were interested in were application of sharia and the reconstitution of the ummah (Muslim community), and particularly with the restoration of the caliphate.
Yasir Qadhi claims modernism only influenced Salafism. According to Quintan Wiktorowicz:
There has been some confusion in recent years because both the Islamic modernists and the contemporary Salafis refer (referred) to themselves as al-salafiyya, leading some observers to erroneously conclude a common ideological lineage. The earlier salafiyya (modernists), however, were predominantly rationalist Asharis. Similarly Oxford Bibliographies distinguishes between the early Islamic Modernists -- (such as Muhammad Abdu) who used the term "salafiyya" to refer to their attempt at renovation of Islamic thought -- and the very different (more purist and traditional) Salafiyya of movements such as Ahl-i Hadith, Wahhabism, etc.
Both groups wanted to strip away taqlid (imitation) of post-Salaf doctrine they thought not truly Islamic, but for different reasons. Modernists thought taqlid prevented the Muslims from flourishing because it got in the way of compatibility with the modern world, traditional revivalists simply because (they believed) it was impure. What was needed was not reinterpretation but a religious revival of pure Islam.
Muhammad 'Abduh and his movement have sometimes been referred to as "Neo-Mu'tazilites" because his ideas are congruent to the Mu'tazila school of theology. Abduh himself denied being either Ash'ari or a Mu'tazilite, although only because he rejected strict taqlid (conformity) to any one group.
After World War I, some Western scholars, such as Louis Massignon categorising many scripture-oriented rationalist scholars and modernists as part of the paradigm of "Salafiyya", but other scholars dispute this description.
Revivalism
The rise of pan-Islamism across the Muslim World after the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman empire, would herald the emergence of Salafi religious purism that fervently opposed modernist trends. The anti-colonial struggle to restore the Khilafah would become the top priority; manifesting in the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood, a revolutionary movement established in 1928 by the Egyptian school teacher Hassan al-Banna. Backed by the Wahhabi clerical elites of Saudi Arabia, Salafis who advocated pan-Islamist religious conservatism emerged across the Muslim World, gradually replacing modernists during the decolonisation period, and then dominating funding for Islam via petroleum export money starting in the 1970s. According to Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi:Rashid Rida popularized the term 'Salafī' to describe a particular movement that he spearheaded. That movement sought to reject the ossification of the madhhabs, and rethink through the standard issues of fiqh and modernity, at times in very liberal ways. A young scholar by the name of Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani read an article by Rida, and then took this term and used it to describe another, completely different movement. Ironically, the movement that Rida spearheaded eventually became Modernist Islam and dropped the 'Salafī' label, and the legal methodology that al-Albānī championed – with a very minimal overlap with Rida's vision of Islam – retained the appellation 'Salafī'. Eventually, al-Albānī's label was adopted by the Najdī daʿwah as well, until it spread in all trends of the movement. Otherwise, before this century, the term 'Salafī' was not used as a common label and proper noun. Therefore, the term 'Salafī' has attached itself to an age-old school of theology, the Atharī school.
Islamic revivalists like Mahmud Shukri Al-Alusi (1856–1924 C.E), Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865–1935 C.E), Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (1866–1914 C.E), etc. used "Salafiyya" as a term primarily to denote the traditionalist Sunni theology, Atharism. Rida also regarded the Wahhabi movement as part of the Salafiyya trend. Apart from the Wahhabis of Najd, Athari theology could also be traced back to the Alusi family in Iraq, Ahl-i Hadith in India, and scholars such as Rashid Rida in Egypt. After 1905, Rida steered his reformist programme towards the path of fundamentalist counter-reformation. This tendency led by Rida emphasized following the salaf al-salih and became known as the Salafiyya movement, which advocated a re-generation of pristine religious teachings of the early Muslim community.
The progressive views of the early modernists Afghani and Abduh were soon replaced by the puritan Athari tradition espoused by their students; which zealously denounced the ideas of non-Muslims and secular ideologies like liberalism. This theological transformation was led by Syed Rashid Rida who adopted the strict Athari creedal doctrines of Ibn Taymiyyah during the early twentieth century. The Salafiyya movement popularised by Rida would advocate for an Athari-Wahhabi theology. Their promotion of Ijtihad was based on referring back to a strictly textual methodology. Its traditionalist vision was adopted by the Wahhabi clerical establishment and championed by influential figures such as the Syrian-Albanian Hadith scholar Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani (d. 1999 C.E/ 1420 A.H).
As a scholarly movement, "Enlightened Salafism" had begun declining some time after the death of Muhammad ʿAbduh in 1905. The Puritanical stances of Rashid Rida, accelerated by his support to the Wahhabi movement; transformed Salafiyya movement incrementally and became commonly regarded as "traditional Salafism". The divisions between "Enlightened Salafis" inspired by ʿAbduh, and traditional Salafis represented by Rashid Rida and his disciples would eventually exacerbate. Gradually, the modernist Salafis became totally disassociated from the "Salafi" label in popular discourse and would identify as tanwiris (enlightened) or Islamic modernists.
Muslim Brotherhood
Islamist movements like Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn) were highly influenced by both Islamic Modernism and Salafism. Its founder Hassan Al-Banna was influenced by Muhammad Abduh and particularly his Salafi student Rashid Rida. Al-Banna attacked the taqlid of the official ulama and insisted only the Qur'an and the best-attested ahadith should be sources of the Sharia. He was a dedicated reader of the writings of Rashid Rida and the magazine that Rida published, Al-Manar. Sharing Rida's central concern with the decline of Islamic civilization, Al-Banna too believed that this trend could be reversed only by returning to a pure, unadulterated form of Islam. Like Rida, (and unlike the Islamic modernists) Al-Banna viewed Western secular ideas as the main danger to Islam in the modern age. As Islamic Modernist beliefs were co-opted by secularist rulers and official `ulama, the Brotherhood moved in a traditionalist and conservative direction, as it drew more and more of those Muslims "whose religious and cultural sensibilities had been outraged by the impact of Westernisation" -- being "the only available outlet" for such people. The Brotherhood argued for a Salafist solution to the contemporary challenges faced by the Muslims, advocating the establishment of an Islamic state through implementation of the Shari'ah, based on Salafi revivalism.
Although the Muslim Brotherhood officially describes itself as a Salafi movement, the Quietist Salafis often contest their Salafist credentials. The Brotherhood differs from more purist salafis in their strategy for combating the challenge of modernity, and is focused on gaining control of the government. Despite this, both the Brotherhood and more thorough-going Salafists advocate the implementation of sharia and emphasizes strict doctrinal adherence to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad and the Salaf al-Salih.
The Salafi-Activists who have a long tradition of political involvement; are highly active in Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood and its various branches and affiliates. Some Brotherhood's slogans and principles expressed by former Egyptian President (currently incarcerated) Mohammed Morsi:"the Koran is our constitution, the Prophet Muhammad is our leader, jihad is our path, and death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration...sharia, sharia, and then finally sharia. This nation will enjoy blessing and revival only through the Islamic sharia."
Islamic modernists
Although not all of the figures named below are from the above-mentioned movement, they all share a more or less modernist thought or/and approach.
Muhammad Abduh (Egypt)
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (Afghanistan or Persia/Iran)
Mohammed al-Ghazali (Egypt)
Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur (Tunisia)
Chiragh Ali (British India)
Syed Ameer Ali (British India)
Qasim Amin (Egypt)
Malek Bennabi (Algeria)
Musa Jarullah Bigeev (Russia)
Ahmad Dahlan (Indonesia)
Farag Fawda (neomodernist) (Egypt)
Abdulrauf Fitrat (Uzbekistan, then Russia)
Muhammad Iqbal (British India)
Wang Jingzhai (China)
Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah (Egypt)Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah, Oxford Islamic Studies On-line (page visited on 30 January 2015)
Syed Ahmad Khan (British India)
Shibli Nomani (British India)
Ğäbdennasír İbrahim ulı Qursawí (Russia)
Mahmoud Shaltout (Egypt)
Ali Shariati (Iran)
Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (neomodernist) (Sudan)
Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (Egypt)
Mahmud Tarzi (Afghanistan)
Contemporary Modernists
Mohammed Arkoun (Algeria)
Khaled Abou El Fadl (United States)
Gamal al-Banna (Egypt)
Soheib Bencheikh (France)
Abdennour Bidar (France)
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (Pakistan)
Fethullah Gülen (Turkey)
Taha Hussein (Egypt)
Wahiduddin Khan (India)
Irshad Manji (Canada)
Abdelwahab Meddeb (France)
Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (Sudan)
Ebrahim Moosa (South Africa)
Tariq Ramadan (Switzerland)
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri (Pakistan)
Amina Wadud (United States)
Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia)
Contemporary use
Turkey
In 2008, the state directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) for the Republic of Turkey launched the review of all the Hadiths, the sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The school of theology at Ankara University undertook this forensic examination with the aim of removing the centuries-old conservative cultural burden and rediscovering the spirit of reason in the original message of Islam. Fadi Hakura of Chatham House in London compared these revisions to the 16th century Protestant Reformation of Christianity. Turkey has also trained the women as the theologians, and sent them as the senior Imams known as 'vaizes' all over the country, to explain these re-interpretations.
Pakistan
According to at least one source (Charles Kennedy), in Pakistan (as of 1992),
the range of views on the "appropriate role of Islam" runs from "Islamic Modernists" at one end of the spectrum to "Islamic activists" at the other.
"Islamic activists" support the expansion of "Islamic law and Islamic practices", "Islamic Modernists" are lukewarm to this expansion and "some may even advocate development along the secularist lines of the West."
Muhammadiyah
The Indonesian Islamic organization Muhammadiyah was founded in 1912. Often Described as Salafist, and sometimes as Islamic Modernist, it emphasized the authority of the Qur'an and the Hadiths, opposing syncretism and taqlid (blind-conformity) to the ulema. As of 2006, it is said to have "veered sharply toward a more conservative brand of Islam" under the leadership of Din Syamsuddin, the head of the Indonesian Ulema Council.
Criticism
Many orthodox, fundamentalist, puritan, and traditionalist Muslims strongly opposed modernism as bid'ah and the most dangerous heresy of the day, for its association with Westernization and Western education, although some orthodox/traditionalist Muslims, and Muslim scholars agree that going back to the Qur'an and the Sunnah to update Islamic law would not be in violation of the principles of fiqh''.
One of the leading Islamist thinkers and Islamic revivalists, Abul A'la Maududi agreed with Islamic modernists that Islam contained nothing contrary to reason, and was superior in rational terms to all other religious systems. However he disagreed with them in their examination of the Quran and the Sunna using reason as the standard. Maududi, instead started from the proposition that "true reason is Islamic", and accepted the Book and the Sunna, not reason, as the final authority. Modernists erred in examining rather than simply obeying the Quran and the Sunna.
Scholar Malise Ruthven argues that the beliefs that were "integral" to at least one prominent modernist (Abduh) -- namely that the basic revealed truths of Islam and the observable, rational truth of science must be, "in the final analysis be identical" -- is problematic. This is because the idea is "based on the essentially medieval premise that science, like scripture itself is a finite body of knowledge awaiting revelation", when in fact science is "a dynamic process of discovery subject to continual revision". The establishment of non-religious institutions of learning in India, Egypt and elsewhere, which Abduh encouraged, "opened the floodgates to secular forces which threatened Islam's intellectual foundations".
Advocates of political Islam argue that insofar as Modernism seeks to separate Islam and politics it is adopting the Christian and secular principle of "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's", but that politics is inherent in Islam, since Islam encompasses every aspect of life. Some, (Hizb ut-Tahrir for example), claim that in Muslim political jurisprudence, philosophy and practice, the Caliphate is the correct Islamic form of government, and that it has "a clear structure comprising a Caliph, assistants (mu'awinoon), governors (wulaat), judges (qudaat) and administrators (mudeeroon)."
See also
Islam and modernity
Islamic revival
Islamism
Liberalism and progressivism within Islam
Contemporary Islamic philosophy
Muslim Reform Movement
Reform (religion)
Tafazzul Husain Kashmiri
Notes
References
Bibliography