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‘Reformist Islam’, today an oft-heard
slogan, is notoriously difficult to define, for it can mean
different things to different people. Recent years have witnessed
the sudden burgeoning of volumes on the subject, but this book is
not just a repetition of what has already been written before.
Ambitiously global in its scope, it
brings together writings by well-known Islamic scholars and
activists, each of who provides a broad survey of ‘reformist’ Muslim
voices in the part of the world that they are most familiar with—Shireen
Hunter, editor of this book, on Iran, the noted Egyptian scholar Hasan Hanafi on North Africa, Riffat Hasan on South Asia, Martin van Bruinessen on Indonesia, Farish Noor on Malaysia, Recep Senturk on
Turkey, Farhad Khosrokhavar on Europe, and Tamara Sonn on the United
States.
These writers deal with a number of
other contemporary Muslim scholars and scholar-activists, outlining
their own and varied approaches to the question of reform in Islamic
thought. These are simply too numerous to name, leave alone discuss,
here, but they all share certain common methodologies and, to an
extent, goals.
Firstly, these scholars all insist
that what they are engaged in reforming is not Islam itself, but,
rather, certain aspects of commonly-held human understandings of
Islam. They see their task as seeking to revive what they regard as
more authentic understandings on these issues.
Secondly, they are profoundly
dissatisfied with the approach of the traditionalist ulema, wedded
to the doctrine of taqlid or imitation of jurisprudential precedent,
of the ulema allied with state authorities (who generally do their
bidding) and of radical Islamists.
Thirdly, they all advocate ijtihad or
creative reflection on the primary sources of the Islamic faith—the
Quran and Hadith or Prophetic traditions, although they differ as to
the extent they believe ijtihad is permissible and on the
qualifications needed to engage in this exercise.
Fourthly, they stress the crucial
distinction—often ignored by many traditionalist ulema as well as
doctrinaire Islamists—between the shariah, as the divine path, which
they regard as God-given and, therefore, perfect, and fiqh, human
efforts to understand the shariah and express it in the form of
rules, which, being a human effort, is fallible. Unlike the shariah,
which is eternal, fiqh can, and indeed, should, change in response
to new conditions as well as the expanding body of human knowledge,
they unanimously insist.
Fifthly, many of them claim (an
argument many other Muslims would differ with) that certain aspects
of the Quran and the Hadith, mainly dealing with legal matters, are
context-specific, and hence may not be applicable, at least in the
same way, in today’s vastly different context. These include, for
instance, certain injunctions related to women and non-Muslims or to
criminals.
Sixthly, several of them argue for
what could be called a ‘values-based’ reading of the Islamic
scriptural tradition, stressing the relative importance of the
spirit over the letter of these texts.
Using these methodological tools,
these ‘reformist’ Muslim scholars revisit traditional Islamic as
well as modern Islamist thought, dealing with a wide range of
issues: women’s rights and status, relations between Muslims and
people of other faiths, madrasa education, international relations,
economic and political institutions, secularism, democracy,
citizenship in a modern state, war and peace, and so on. In the
process, they articulate alternate Islamic understandings on these
subjects that depart considerably from traditionalist as well as
Islamist positions, and that appear much more socially-engaged and
contextually-relevant.
For those eager to hear ‘progressive’
Muslim voices on a whole host of issues of contemporary import (and
strategic interest), this thoroughly engaging and
immaculately-researched book simply cannot afford to be missed.
Name of the Book:
Reformist Voices of Islam—Mediating Islam and Modernity
Edited by:
Shireen Hunter
Publisher:
Pentagon Press, New Delhi (www.pentagon-press.com)
Year: 2009
Pages: 322
Price: Rs. 995
ISBN:
978-81-8274-3
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