Islamic modernism
Are the Islamic community modernized? Do Muslims adopt some culture of the west? Muslims have made strides towards modernismas from private issues between persons and their God to how they relate with other people from the family or the society in general. Various ideological responses reconciling Muslim to the west are evident in the current world. The new methods and rules of Islamic theology define democracy and civil rights as well as equality hence promoting rationality in the western states. Islamic communities have been modernized beyond doubts, western styles and standards of living are being imitated by majority of Muslims. Setting up standards to observe modernism as well as human rights has forced different political and religious activists to bring forward different arguments; where some refer from Sharia’s while others argue based on Quran concept, and there is no willingness to deviate. In order to address the ambiguity, diverse theories have emerged concerning the relationship of Islamic believes and modernism. More Muslims are impressed with the modern culture and some of them have shown great concern about the willingness to associate with modern standards of education and the way of life. This paper will focus on the Muslim community and analyze whether the Muslim communities have become modernized in their ways of life and how modernization has affected their culture.
Arguments illustrate that today; Muslims have emerged to conform to democracy in most western states through a considerable influence from the constitutional mandate. The current civilization of the west and the colonialism among the Muslim states brought about different movements including Secularism, Islamism and Salafism in order to renovate Islamic believes in the modern world. The activist of such movement; Muhammad Abdu and Muhammad Rashid Rida insisted on the movements of modernism in order to promote Islamic faith as well as putting public life into reformations.[1] Their main aim was to promote democracy among Islamic states and their response towards other cultural beliefs.
Ruling based on individual’s demand have been refuted by Islamic law, where decisions nowadays being made in the interest of the public due to the influence of Islamic legends. The efforts of Muhammad Abdu have been actively reinforced by the Islamic Council of Europe by insisting that political power is invalid without participation of the public; and that the community must conform to Shura for addressing such issues.[2]Also, Islamic communities’ strategies emphasize on eradication of ruling with personal discretion; arguing that there is no person allowed to judge without consultation. The ideology expressly points out through the intention of most Islamic leaders to borrow the concept of leadership from captivating chief (Amir). The leaders are therefore entitled to accentuate the form of leadership about Shura as the charismatic chief did.[3]They emphasize on ruling with virtue by considering the expectations of the community.
There are legal methods used to get the solution to a problem. The first method is ijma or unanimous consensus amongst Muslims. Another method is known as Qiyas (decision by analogy). The former illustrates that after summarizing decisions concerning a problem, jurists find a general agreement and no one afterward is allowed to formulate arguments concerning the ruling.[4]The later focuses on the application of logic and reasoning to apply a formal law to a new state uncovered in the original law. Whenever a judgment fails by using the analogy, other groupings are used to identify a legalized judgment. The most commonly used are the Istihsan; meaning making decisions based on the interest of the public.[5]The other method is the application of Urf; placing a value on covering any matter familiar to the public on a particular locality based on traditional beliefs. Through this law, the Islamic community tends to adopt the western form of leadership that grounds on democracy and keen consideration of human rights.
Current Islamic jurists are required to have excellent qualifications in order to give authority. Qualities required rely on merit, and other leaders ruling the society focus on modern styles of leadership. In the past centuries, Muslims considered authority to be entitled to an individual, and the determination of who rules majorly following hereditary concepts. The ruling by one single entity or an individual leadership is far a much forgotten case in the Muslim society. The Islam states have moved ahead to repulse the activities of dictatorial leaders such as Mubarak in Egypt and Shah in Malaysia.[6] Nowadays they rule with democracy; a theory which has been alleged to have originated from the western civilizations. According to the historical facts, the modernism is considered to have emerged through activists such as Rida. He majored on promoting Muslim reforms. In Turkey, he held several campaigns to restructure the role of leadership and the responsibilities of a leader in the society by setting up some constitutions to govern the relationship between Muslims and the authority.[7]Through his attempt, it is evident today how Muslims have been reformed and bound by western civilization through adequate replication of western culture.
Several transformations cropped up as a result of ancient Islamic leaders through a combined teaching of both Sharia and Quran doctrines. According to Rida, he explained the parts of Sharia in detail by application of the ideas of Afghani and Abdu illustrating that the gates of individual judgment should reopen; and people should return to sources.[8]By this, he promoted the first stages of Turkish Revolution that are seen bearing many fruits to the Islamic Society. Muslims can differentiate and understand the parts of Sharia so clearly. There is an evidence of distinguishing between the parts that deal with social conduct and those that deal with unchanging circumstances. Through his efforts, Muslims are well placed as opposed to their prior beliefs; where Sharia had a priority, and the rights of human beings were violated because of wrong interpretation of the Sharia. Parliaments are initiating democracy, and the rule of justice is cropping up among Islamic states to support human rights.
Weighing the effects of the laws applied to guide Muslims have been put into consideration. Other repugnant ones such asthe ones of Caliph no longer exist among Islamic societies. He is no longer considered a genuine religious leader because of his teachings that were insignificant among Muslim states. According to Rida, he assumed Caliph as a worldwide leader but not a religious leader because he could not implement religious laws to transform Muslims into the modern world. [9] Caliph laws are non-existing, and the constitution has adopted new power to reform Muslims as a whole including their religious education. Mujtahids have taken the mandate of redeveloping Sharia on the critical parts as suggested by Rida. [10]They practice moral leadership among Muslims and religious guidance as opposed to the rules of Caliph in the past centuries. According to Mujtahids, the constitution is given priority in their daily roles to emphasize religious faith by practicing modernism with sobriety.
Elections, Constitutional interpretations, administrations, and legislations have taken the course to restructure Muslim modernism. The choices of people are based on the constitution as Rida suggested before. Initial approach where leaders were recognized rather than being elected lacks among the Muslims. Acceptance of any citizen as a leader follows the formal election criteria where the choices and decisions of people are prioritized; constitutionalism has spread especially in European states, and the Muslim modernism is replacing the ancient traditional form of leadership which basically involved autocracy. [11]The Social, political leadership has heightened through offering training activities to Muslim leaders in the sense of promoting traditional orders into modern doctrines. To implement traditional values, Rida injected more weight to the European Islamic states to formulate constitution rather than the representative government in the decisions made concerning preservation of religious beliefs among Muslims. [12]The effect is valid even today; Muslims educate each other on their leadership roles and the response to critical issues in the society. Judgment relies on democracy and leaders are exposed to new ruling procedures acquired from legal training institutions.
Majority of leadership styles and forms of judgments practiced by the western states have been adopted by Islamic communities. Decisions in court are based on a typical formula and the jurists apply similar concepts in finding the new courses of action.It is clear that jurists of the two cultures portray some similar rules and approaches based on plain meaning literalism, understanding culturalnorms and reference to original purposes and spirits. Both sides use jury who are legalized by the government to have adhered to the required regulations.
Islamic and the West have books of references to the judgments by the jury. Even though the Islam states refer from Quran and the western states refer from constitutional books with some references from the Bible, both of them are presented by the juries in making legalized judgments. There is also a laid down procedure for making decisions. A single jury is not entitled to make decisions alone on some crucial questions. [13] In such a situation, if one method fails, the juries always adopt another substantial method to approach a final judgment. Both communities listen to their cases in courts, and the processes include even legal punishments to those found guilty. The laws have an arrangement in such a manner that the weight of the punishment depends on the criminal activity under examination as opposed to the ancient methods.
Sovereignty and the rule of law are practiced by Muslims today to a much wider extent as compared to the era of their founder fathers. There is no evidence that all of them are practicing the principle of democracy, but a good number of Muslims who are not naïve have put the rule into practice by differentiating between inhuman and rational characters. Rached Gannouchi insisted that he sees Islam being transformed into the western democracy. [14]It is practical that most of them have acquired the modern western democratic behaviors by eliminating racial and ethnic discriminations. Democracy and human rights have been observed so far in the western communities. Muslims have embraced the culture of treating other westerners in more democratic principles. Formerly, human rights activism remained the role ofWestern Christian communities. Today, Muslims structure well in embracing human rights; considering the rights of other is evident, though it has been neglected by other Muslims on the part of the outsiders.
Islamic government adopts a new course where democracy and human rights prevail in the society. Hasan Turabi from Sudan argued anciently that the religious belief of Islam is a form of practicing democracy. Later, he contradicted himself by arguing that the Islamic government is not a government of the people, but it is a government of the Sharia and that the Sharia represents the conviction of the society. [15]They considered Sharia more important than human rights, and failure to follow its implementations would call for killings on the part of the affected individuals. Today Sharia has been contemplated less effective by some Muslim societies. It has undergone major reforms to avert the Muslims in line with democracy in the modern world. The Muslims political activists pass the rule of the legislature just as the western states also pass the rule of human rights. The idea is so much divergent from the 1980s where the Sharia was the source of all legislations. [16] Today, democracy is under practice to model Sharia laws and help in putting them into practice.
Discriminations against human values and cultural way of life do not persist in most Islamic States in the West and parts of Europe. Legislations have been brought forward to eliminate discriminations in the society. One can agree with Qutb who also suggested that the strength and importance of a nation do not rely on the institutions but the underlying principles and the virtue of the few who are in power. [17]Settling such matters would transform everything to be under control and in a good place for the benefit of the society. The main idea is that whether the Constitution is embraced or not, democracy is fundamental in the Muslim society because it preserves the Sharia laws and developing conformity with the modernism.
Religion and politics have also been forms of Islamic modernism and courses of civilizations. Political icons such as Mawardi and Ibn Taymiyya implemented unity between politics and religion doctrines. [18]The motive of the idea was to deliver gain into their society. Among Muslims community, the settlement of the religion and political conflicts have enabled them to achieve unity and to consider politics as a form of developing societal laws rather than being the antagonist to religious beliefs. It is viewed that the ideologies brought numerous reforms to the Muslim states within Europe as compared to the ancient era. The political reforms among Muslims have undergone a radical change. Qutb through the implementation of Sharia enabled the Muslims to understand the relationship between politics and the religion. [19] The questions that remained unanswered of whether politics are in line with Quran or not enabled the Islam community to address the issue and portray modern civic laws that differentiate the jurisdictions of each factor.
The unanswered question of whether Islamic religion supports politics or not undermined Muslims rights for a long time. In answering the question, Abduh laid a desirable truth about the political and religion conflicts. He insisted that political matters are not determined by the laws of the Islam, and such matters have little consequences on the religious beliefs. To support his argument, he argued that politics determination depends on the circumstances; and that they change from season to season. [20]The idea has enabled reformation of the Muslims in response towards their decisions on political factors and how to embrace them. They have shown many similarities with Western culture on how they answer political views for the reformation of their culture.
Formerly, they refused to elude the knowledge of Plato and Aristotle because they knew such practices would eliminate their kings from accessing authority as a result of studying the constitution. [21]To convince Muslims further and draw their understanding of the politics, Abd al- Raziq argued that Muhammad’s power were different from any power of the kings and he never considered politics as much separated from the rule and the implementations of the law. He considered Muhammad as one who embraced politics as a catalyst of good governance even in the religious sector. The tension is however relieved from the Islam; their efforts to distinguish and relate between politics and religion is so much reformed and similar to the western civilization.
The concept of separation between religions and states is understood among the Islam community. They are precluded from the Meccan phase when they would embrace force to convert more people into Islam. Ancient methods of persuading people to Islam; that were achieved through iron fisted forms never exist in the society. Freedom of worship and expression among other human rights has found a chance to persist in the Islamic communities. Muslims are in the course to understand that religion diversity is a societal norm and therefore should be accepted within the society.
Progress is evident within the Islamic States where different cultural practices persist into practice with little limitations. According to An-Na’im in his work Islam and the Secular State, he stated that it is only through religious bias and divergence that will enable Muslims to practice their religious beliefs. He asserts that the pressure from other religion and the reactions from Muslims would make the Muslims to portray more leadership in the Islamic culture. [22]Again his arguments never ended there; he illustrated that through religious differences, other religions would respect Islamic culture and consider it as a culture which is present in the society. To summarize his arguments, he argued that it is only a secure state that can help in solving the differences and address the issue of negative ethnicity among communities. Muslims were put in a right direction to understand that the states belong to all religion. [23] They are more civilized about the current situation which is considered as the state where every religion would feel free to practice their beliefs.
In Pakistan for example, laws have been implemented restricting Muslims from discriminating other diverse cultural groups. For instance, the first President of Pakistan, Jinnah also addressed his nation as the nation of all people who accept every culture and allows them the freedom of worship. [24]According to many scholars, this has been argued to be so much divergent with the Islamic practices in the past. Most of them are not considered to copy from the president’s message; and still, they follow ancient orders of killing non-Muslims and denying the freedom of worship. Although the idea is visible in most states, Muslims have reformed in various sectors by applying civic reasoning. It is only through the civic reasoning that citizens can access their rights and participate freely in their cultural development.
Many activists also involved, and they still participate in creating awareness to the Islamic communities based on the existence of other religion. Various campaigns have taken a lead persuading Muslims on how to cope, respect and understand other cultural practices. Leo Strauss was not left behind in his campaign to accept every religion in Islamic states. He principled on the fact that knowing what is good and putting into practice depends on the influence of religion which must be accustomed to every individual. [25] The religious beliefs substantiate among Islamic society as the source of liberal values. Recommendations show that the religious leaders ought to enforce the rule to make every individual among Muslims respect gender, religion, and age in the modern world. In the past, equality practices embraced by the states with the Islamic majority denote some of the changes. Understanding human rights remain the valued strategy to address cultural differences.
Campaigns against gender violence are one of the factors focused within Muslims to portray equity. Women rights appear into consideration among Islamic leaders and the laws under implementations. Abduh argued that the development and civilization in the Islamic states failed because of the inability of Muslims to accept women and consider them as part of the society. He further illustrated that the respect of human rights could only take a position where women are respected, and their rights being considered with sobriety. [26]Rashid Rida also defended the rights of different sexes in the society; considering women as part and parcel of the community. These campaigns have brought about modernity among Muslims. Nowadays, women can access education and employment in the society. The civilization embraces itself as a result of the elimination of gender violence and discrimination among Muslims. Such declarations of human rights among Muslims have yielded benefits, and the Muslims have extended the same principles to other non-Muslims.
Islamic community understands the difference between politics and religion and how to combine such factors in the society with a sole interest of preserving religious laws.Muslims have allowed everyone to access their rights; religious leaders and political thinkers have given equal civic rights to non-Muslims. Democracy has not been left behind among the Muslims states. Women can vote, and leaders are voted in rather than being selected to occupy religious posts as practiced in the ancient days. They embrace western civilization by giving equal opportunities to all religions, allowing them to worship and participate in cultural activities. Though civilization and reforms practiced among the Islamic states, Muslims have embraced western culture to some extent and thus, they have been transformed by modern civilizations. The majority of the society has been overwhelmed by the ruling procedures and the state of democracy practiced by the western culture.
[1] Mansoor, M. “Islamic Modernism, Nationalism and Fundamentalism”. (University of Chicago Press, 2015).
[2] Antony, Black. The History of Islamic Political Thought. From the Prophet to the Present. (2nd ed. Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 3.
[3] Antony, Black. The History of Islamic Political T5hought, 5.
[4] Mansoor, M. “Islamic Modernism, Nationalism and Fundamentalism”
[5]Richard, J. Terrill. World Criminal Justice Systems. A Comparative study, (Anderson Publishing. Eighth edition , 2015), 12.
[6]Richard, J. Terrill. World Criminal Justice Systems, 14
[7] Hallaq, W. “The Origin and Evolution of Islamic Law”. (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 7.
[8] Antony, Black. The History of Islamic Political T5hought,3
[9] Hallaq, W. “The Origin and Evolution of Islamic Law”, 9, 10
[11] Mansoor, M. “Islamic Modernism, Nationalism and Fundamentalism”
[12] Natana, J.From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. (Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195154689, 2010), 10.
[13] Abdullah, Araby. “Is Sharia Islamic Law Compatible With The American Constitution?” (Books and Islam Review. Presented by the Pens Vs. The Sword, 2014), 3
[14] Antony, Black. The History of Islamic Political T5hought, 3
[15] Mansoor, M. “Islamic Modernism, Nationalism and Fundamentalism”, 15, 16
[16] Ibid,17
[17] Natana, J.From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, 17.
[18] Hallaq, W. “The Origin and Evolution of Islamic Law”, 18,19
[20] Antony, Black. The History of Islamic Political T5hought, 20
[21] Parray, Ahmad. “Islamic Modernist and Reformist Thought”. (World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization, 2011), 2.
[22] Parray, Ahmad. “Islamic Modernist and Reformist Thought”, 22, 23, 24
[25] Natana, J.From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, 25
[26]Ibid, 3
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