1. The Reality of an Islamised
Modernity
James O’Neil
Photo: Sancalkar Mosque, Turkey
2. What is Modernity?
Modernity is not a description of
accidental properties of a
particular time-period, but an
attitude/worldview that makes up
the dominant system of thought in
our era.
However, while we may see
intimations of modernity in the
writings of pre-modern thinkers,
but it is a mistake to retroactively
paint them as manifestations of the
‘spirit of modernity’.
Characteristics of modernity:
‘The Reign of Quantity’ over
quality (Guenon)
The ideal of authenticity/ the
principle of majority (Taylor/AR)
The primacy of instrumental
reason (Taylor)
The Principle of Universality (AR)
4. What is Islamic?
We cannot say that everything Muslims do is Islamic as Michael Gilsenan
does; we cannot negate the category of Islam as a totality as El-Zein does,
nor can we attempt to divide Islam into many Islams as Gellner does – to
answer the question we must define ‘Islamic’ in a way that is both Jāmiʿ
and Māniʿ.
Talal Asad’s conception of a discursive tradition is helpful in this regard as
it aligns with the centrality of samʿ in the Islamic tradition.
However, not all that is Islamic is necessarily linked to samʿ or tradition.
Rather, as Keeler suggests, the ‘Islamic’ is a synthesis, one in which useful
components of foreign thought are sorted and incorporated into the
Islamic intellectual tradition.
I thus propose a third category – the Islamised: foreign concepts integrated
into the Islamic worldview and shaped by it.
5. Foreign Ideas (e.g., Greek philosophy,
Confucian social hierarchies,
modernity)
Islamic Civilisation (the ʿUlamāʾ)
Islamised Ideas (e.g., Avicennan
philosophy, Han Kitab literature,
Muslim modernist thought)
7. An Islamised (not Islamic) Modernity
We cannot say that an Islamic modernity exists, nor could it possibly
exist:
The principle of majority and the primacy of instrumental reason both
contradict the intrinsic Islamic focus on samʿ and continuity.
Historical Islamic civilisations have been focused on particular ʿurf instead of
attempting to formulate a ‘universal Islam’.
Raising the epistemic status of quantity over quality is incompatible with the
qualitative nature of the unseen
However, it is undeniable that particular manifestations of modernity
have become Islamised.
10. The Possible State
Hallaq is correct to say that pre-modern Islamic governance was
radically different from those of modern Muslim nation-states – the
‘Constitution of Medina’ is no mirror of the US Constitution.
However, the fact that the pre-modern Islamic governance differs
from states born as a result of Islamised modernity does not entail
that these states have nothing to do with Islam
Instead, these states can be considered inherent products of
modernity then contorted into an Islamised form – however, this
‘Islamised’ state can indeed conflict with the ‘Islamic’ past.
11. The Islamic vs.
The Islamised
‘Islamists have been prepared
to circumvent, and even
implicitly repudiate, certain
aspects of the tradition that
intervened between the Prophet
g and the modern era.
Specifically, for political-
programmatic reasons,
Islamists have wanted to do
away with the scholars’
monopoly on the Shari’ah and
its institutions.’ (Feldman
2008, 108-109)
(Asad 1961, 100)
13. The Islamised Modern Mind & Science
The ‘Scientific Miracles’ discourse of the late 20th/early 21st century
ostensibly indicates a modernisation of the Muslim Mind – however,
the epistemic framework of this line of thinking is essentially modern,
although it supports a metaphysical claim:
Empirical, scientific evidence alone provides certainty: the truthfulness of the
Qur’an is not proved by rational arguments, but by conformity with the
findings of contemporary science.
‘In view of the level of knowledge in Muhammad’s g day, it is inconceivable
that many of the statements in the Qur’an which are connected with
science could have been the work of a man.’ (Bucaille 1976, 251-252)
14. The Islamised Modern Mind & Religion
The Islamised modern mind
must necessarily reinterpret his
religion, as the foundations of
his epistemology differ from the
imams of centuries past:
The quantitative text triumphs
over the qualitative scholarly
opinion.
Ikhtilāf is abhorred as the absence
of a singular, universal truth.
The supremacy of the individual
reigns in the rejection of taqlīd.
ويق ،بشرعنا يحكم السالم عليه عيسى
ضي
أ اإلنجيل من بغيرهما ال والسنة بالكتاب
و
ونحوه الحنفي الفقه
!
–
األلب الدين نصر
اني
15. Conclusion
Islamic civilisation has always
managed to integrate foreign
concepts in a positive manner
through the moderating debates of
the ʿUlamāʾ.
With modernity, this has not been
the case, and thus the ugliness of
the modern Islamised state/Islam
& science movement/Salafism
emerges.
An Islamic modernity is not
possible, but an Islamised
modernity is an inescapable reality. Without the sieve of traditional ʿUlamāʾ, concepts are
becoming Islamised that never should have been,
spoiling the very dough of Islam.
16. Bibliography
• ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭaha. Rūḥ al-Ḥadāthah. Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 2003.
• Al-Albāni, Naṣr al-Dīn. Mukhtaṣar Saḥīh Muslim li al-Mundhirī. Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1987.
• Asad, Muhammad. The Principles of State and Government in Islam. Kuala Lampur: Islamic Books Trust,
2007.
• Asad, Talal. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam.” Qui Parle 17, no. 2 (2009): 1–30.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20685738.
• Bacaille, Maurice. The Bible, the Qur’an, and Science: the Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern
Knowledge. Chippenham: Third Millennium Press, 2019.
• Feldman, Noah. The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
• Hallaq, Wael. Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha.
New York, Columbia University Press: 2019.
• Suleiman, Farid. "The Philosophy of Taha Abderrahman: A Critical Study", Die Welt des Islams 61, 1 (2020):
39-71, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700607-00600A10.
• Taylor, Charles. The Malaise of Modernity. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2003.
