Customer Reviews

Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition (Publications of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fazlur Rahman is truly one of the greatest scholars of Islamic History, in addition to being very controversial. In this book, Fazlur Rahman explores the transformation of the Islamic intellectual tradition, ranging from philosophy and ethics, to jurisprudence. He brilliantly exposes and analizes the tension that exists in the interpretation(s) of the Qur'an. Rahman ambitiously demonstrates that for Islam and the Qur'an to be what Muslims actually claim them to be, comprehensive in scope and pertinent for every age and society, then Muslims must re-evaluate the Qur'an in positive ways, and in light of modernity and its challenges. In a similar vein, Rahman argues that for Islam to truly demonstrate its principles of social equality and justice, Islamic scholars must re-examine their methodology and hermeneutics. Amongst several other things, Rahman critiques the repetitive rhetoric and anti-philosophical trends that the Islamic intellectual communities faced during Islamic Medieval times.

This work is a significant contribution to understanding the Muslim world today. It is a genuine search for broadening the scope of Islam by extrapolating upon its inherent egalitarian principles. It is also a beautiful re-evaluation of the Qur'an, by having studied it throught the context of its revelation. I recommend this book for Muslims as well as Non-Muslims interested in the study of Islam and Islamic Intellectual History.

Here's a sample of the book's prose. After describing the challenge to some traditional Islamic tenets posed by Izz al-Din Ibn Abd al-Salam al-Sulami, and others, Fazlur Rahman writes "But orthodoxy had developed an amazing shock-absorbing capacity: all these thinkers were held in high esteem by orthodox circles as great representatives of Islam, but such statements of theirs as had radical import were invariably dismissed as 'isolated' (shadhdh) or idiosyncratic and were quietly buried. It took real rebels like Ibn Taymiya to make any perceptible dent in this stieel wall of ijma (consensus.)"

I love it. We get a sense of the orthodoxy-preserving process he's describing in visual and tactile terms, and we're drawn in to the "buried" views that it is some part of his goal to resurrect here.

This small work is essential reading for understanding Islam. The previous review suffices, but I just wanted to add a note about the work's content. During my first reading, I thought that the work was overly bogged down with a discussion of education and its development throughout Pakistan, Turkey, etc. However, upon a second reading, I found this to be the most profound and impactful section of the work, as this is the locus of the true reform of Islam and its true modernization will occur. Thus, this work is partly a late scholar's dream for the future of his religion. Though at the same time, it is deeply grounded in history and its realities.

I found Fazlur Rahman's "Islam & Modernity" a very helpful and readable
survey on the prospects for educational reform in the muslim world. Rahman's
approach seemed to be geographically and politically comprehensive yet not
at all stodgy or in the least way overwhelming. I find myself mourning the
fact that he died in 1988 at the young age of 68 and wondering what further
gifts he might have provided to the University of Chicago in particular and
the West in general had he been blessed with greater longevity.

This book was inspirational and a real breakthrough in my understanding and relationship with my faith. It was the first occasion that an orthodox scholar refused to close the gates of inquiry, and maintains that Islam mandate these gates remain open allowing in questions and solutions sensitive to particular societies; it claims that the Quran requires particularity and not immanence in realising what is a Muslim way of life and refuses to yield to the sheer weight of orthodoxy. Fazlur Rahman is brave and determined not to let the ideologues, the obedience automatons from hijacking the wonderful Message. This is despite the fact that one may critique his theory in Chapter One (also included in Kauzmann's Liberal Islam anthology); his other book 'Islam' is also an inspiring read.

Arguably the greatest Arab-American intellect of the 20th Century, the late Fazlur Rahman's writings are essential readings for the Near East scholar, whether novice or PhD Candidate. No scholar can establish more authority in his or her field of study than did Rahman, which he accomplished through his neverending criticism of Orientalist tendencies. In essence, he breathed back into Islam the very life that the Western Orientalist saps out of it.

As for the book itself, it is a critique of Islamic education, i.e., Islamic Intellectualism. For Rahman, a genuine understanding of Qur'anic weltaunschunng was misconstrued, in effect overlooked by early Muslim thinkers, whose pupils were forced consequently to pay a tremendous price: when Medeival Muslim hakmit (philosophy) attempted to apply an Islamic veneer onto its clearly Hellenized rational interpretation of theology, Islamic Orthodoxy crushed it "by its sheer weight." Hence the historically truncated hakmit found only in Sufi and Shi'ite schools. Ironically, the orthodoxy did not have a handle on the Qur'anic weltanshunng either: as orthodox scholars developed Islamic jurisprudence and theological doctrine their atomic focus on individual suras outside of the situational context necessary for proper deduction, they too missed the point. Thereby eliminating the once rich intellectual heritage's future of organic and original thought. Tied to Islam's clash with the West and ostensible Modernity, maintaining an appologetic Islamic veneer to justify Western and Modern currents is ultimately self-defeating. Unless the on-going peripheral struggle to restore an organic, genuine understanding of the Qur'an succeeds, this situation will unfortunately continue to increase in the post-colonial world. Affectively leaving Islam as a candle burning at both ends.

I recommend this book along with Edward Said's various writings on East/West discourse for anyone interested in present-day intellectual dialogue within Islamic societies. As for an excellent introduction to Islamic Intellectual History, try Rahman's book titled "Islam", inshah Allah. (If new to the Middle East, please keep one thing in mind: Would you read the Holy Bible or see a shakesperean play, in order to understand contemporary Western European and American culture? Well, on one hand Said has a point with this annalogy, yet Rahman makes good arguement otherwise. You decide.)

Equally important is one's handle on aesthetic hermeneutics, particularly the debate between Theodore Adorno and Hans Georg Gadamer, to whom Rahman openly rejects late in his book's Introduction--art must inherently convey Truth for Islam's claims to have validity.

Arguably the greatest Arab-American intellect of the 20th Century, the late Fazlur Rahman's writings are essential readings for the Near East scholar, whether novice or PhD Candidate. No scholar can establish more authority in his or her field of study than did Rahman, which he accomplished through his neverending criticism of Orientalist tendencies. In essence, he breathed back into Islam the very life that the Western Orientalist sucks out of it.

As for the book itself, it is a critique of Islamic education, i.e., Islamic Intellectualism. For Rahman, a genuine understanding of Qur'anic weltaunschunng was misconstrued, in effect overlooked by early Muslim thinkers, whose pupils were forced consequently to pay a tremendous price: when Medeival Muslim hakmit (philosophy) attempted to apply an Islamic veneer onto its clearly Hellenized rational interpretation of theology, Islamic Orthodoxy crushed it "by its sheer weight." Hence the historically truncated hakmit found only in Sufi and Shi'ite schools. Ironically, the orthodoxy did not have a handle on the Qur'anic weltanshunng either: as orthodox scholars developed Islamic jurisprudence and theological doctrine their atomic focus on individual suras outside of the situational context necessary for proper deduction, they too missed the point. Thereby eliminating the once rich intellectual heritage's future of organic and original thought. Tied to Islam's clash with the West and ostensible Modernity, maintaining an appologetic Islamic veneer to justify Western and Modern currents is ultimately self-defeating. Unless the on-going peripheral struggle to restore an organic, genuine understanding of the Qur'an succeeds, this situation will unfortunately continue to increase in the post-colonial world. Affectively leaving Islam as a candle burning at both ends.

I recommend this book along with Edward Said's various writings on East/West discourse for anyone interested in present-day intellectual dialogue within Islamic societies. As for an excellent introduction to Islamic Intellectual History, try Rahman's book titled "Islam", inshah Allah. (If new to the Middle East, please keep one thing in mind: Would you read the Holy Bible or see a shakesperean play, in order to understand contemporary Western European and American culture? Well, on one hand Said has a point with this annalogy, yet Rahman makes good arguement otherwise. You decide.)