Modernism Islamic Muslim
Islamic Modernism
Modernism believed that the human mind had an infinite capacity to transform and control social and natural phenomena, and that man was endowed with reason, self-consciousness, a sense of individualism, progress, freedom, and the power to make history. European modernity held that metaphysics are the science of the absurd, and that only pragmatism and relativism could salvage the human mind. These ideas challenge the theistic (Islamic) mind at its foundation, with its belief in God and human limitations, and constitute one of the most fundamental differences between the modem European world view and the Islamic one. (Keddie, 65-77)
In the age of reform (1850-1914), Islamic modernists, who found great vitality in the Islamic tradition and wished to adapt that tradition to contemporary concerns, emphasized the need for unity of the umma (the Muslim community of believers). In doing so they hoped to reverse the weakness of modem Muslim states in their encounter with modernity and the West (Beinin, 90-94). Reformers like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) and his Egyptian student and collaborator Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) believed that Muslims had to make the best possible use of science, technology and methods of organization when undertaking reform. In formulating his views on social change, Afghani rejected the notion that Muslims should follow tradition blindly, while at the same time refusing to imitate the West indiscriminately. Advocating activism, he believed in the need to apply reason to solve human dilemmas, and to confront the West through political and military reforms. Afghani favored constitutionalism and called for curbing the power of rulers, seeking within the Islamic tradition values and models that might help his co-religionists cope with the changing world about them. While most of the traditional religious scholars (ulama) paid him scant attention, he influenced many Muslims, especially those who, while deeply steeped in their religion, recognized the need for adaptation to the modern world. Likewise, those who looked to the West for models of change but feared losing their identities through blind imitation also found his legacy inspiring. In a unique way, he somehow bridged traditions. His ideas not only influenced future Islamic movements, but also galvanized numerous secular nationalist movements as well. (Landau, 318-320)
The leaders of nineteenth century Islamic reformism stressed the compatibility of reason and revelation and ascribed the stagnation in Muslim religious thought to the belief in predestination among the masses. According to the Islamic reformists, the rulers of Muslim countries in the age of decline--from about the tenth to the fifteenth century--had spread this philosophy as a means of attaining easy control over the masses (Ahmad, 17-19). This had resulted in apathy and inaction in Muslim societies. The reform school realized that the center of the world had shifted from "Dar al-Islam" (the abode of Islam) to "Dar al-Gharb" (the abode of the West), and argued for the reapplication of Islamic principles in the modem setting. (Landau, 318-320)
The Egyptian Hasan al-Banna shared many of the views of the reform school and was a disciple of Rashid Rida, a Syrian-Egyptian religious reformer who was the main interpreter of the legacy of Muhammad 'Abduh. Yet Banna went beyond the merely intellectual role played by earlier reformers. By establishing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, he first made the Islamic resurgence into an organized political and social movement which drew the support and involvement of the masses. (Keddie, 65-77)
Abduh's most famous disciple, Rashid Rida (1865-1935), adopted another aspect of Afghani's rich legacy. He refined the modernist position by espousing both Pan-Islam and Arab nationalist ideas. Afghani had already taught that under early Islam liberal principles of consultation and consensus guided the community. Rida developed these notions and opened the way for others after him to claim that, as reformers, they wanted to eliminate practices and superstitions that did not come from early Islam. In this sense the Wahhabi reformists in Arabia appealed to him, but unlike them he never believed that Muslims should actually revive early Islamic institutions, practices and punishments (Beinin, 90-94). He simply favored reforms based on early Islamic principles. However, unlike the radical Islamists in Egypt and Algeria today, in his view politics and religion could coexist. He favored the establishment of an Islamic state with the understanding that religious prescription alone could not provide all the answers required by the modern age. Building on Rida's ideas, the proponents of the al-salafiya movement in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the founders of the modern revivalist movement, rejected the separation of religion from politics in the Islamic state they advocated. (Ahmad, 17-19)
Today, the Islamic trend is clearly the ascendant political force in the Middle East as evidenced by the electoral success of Islamic parties in Jordan (in 1989) and Algeria (in 1990-91) However, they still need to develop more detailed prescriptions for the ills which confront Arab society. More importantly, the ongoing heterogeneous discourses seem to articulate "different matters and obey different epistemologies." (Keddie, 65-77) In other , the competing protagonists do not share a common vocabulary to express their goals and their disagreements. As long as this rupture continues, the discourse will be filled with rancor, disunity and violence. (Beinin, 90-94)
Works Cited
Ahmad, Eqbal. “Islam and Politics.” in Yazbeck, Yvonne; Haines, Byron and Ellison Findly. The Islamic Impact, ed. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2004. p. 17-19.
Beinin, Joel. “Islamic Responses to Capitalist Penetration of the Middle East” in The Islamic Impulse, ed. Barbara Freyer Stowasser. Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University 2005. pp. 90-94.
Keddie, Nikki. "The Revolt of Islam and Its Roots," in Comparative Political Dynamics, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow and Kenneth Paul Erickson (New York: Harper Collins, 2003). Pp: 65-77.
Landau, Jacob. The Politics of Pan-Islam: Ideology and Organization. Oxford: Clarendon Press (Revised Edition). 2004, pp. 318-320.
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